Performance of water-jet pump under acceleration

Abstract

The instantaneous acceleration affects the performance of the water-jet pump obviously. Here, based on the user-defined function, the method to simulate the inner flow in water-jet pumps under acceleration conditions was established. The effects of two different acceleration modes (linear acceleration and exponential acceleration) and three kinds of different acceleration time (0.5s, 1s and 2s) on the performance of the water-jet pump were analyzed. The results show that the thrust and the pressure pulsation under exponential acceleration are lower than that under linear acceleration at the same time; the vapor volume fraction in the impeller under linear acceleration is 27.3% higher than that under exponential acceleration. As the acceleration time increases, the thrust gradually increases and the pressure pulsation amplitude at the impeller inlet and outlet gradually decreases, while the law of pressure pulsation is the opposite at the diffuser outlet. The main frequency of pressure pulsation at the impeller outlet is different under different acceleration time. The research results can provide some reference for the optimal design of water-jet pumps.

Keywords

• Water-jet pump
• Acceleration mode
• Acceleration time
• Numerical simulation
• Pressure pulsation
• Cavitation