Effect of tongue clearance on hydraulic performance of double support vortex pump

Abstract

In order to study influence of tongue clearance on the hydraulic performance of double support vortex pump, three dimensional flow model with symmetric variable size tongue clearance was established by changing section parameter of tongue clearance, and applied to numerically simulate the steady inner flow in a vortex pump based on fixed working conditions and impeller through ANSYS FLUENT. The numerical results show the influence of tongue channel with two sections (non-uniform and uniform sections) on flow field characteristics in vortex pump. Firstly, the variation of tongue channel section changes the vortex structure distribution in circumferential flow channel. Specifically the spiral forward vortex structure in the circumferential direction shifts to large radius side with increasing tongue width. Secondly, the circumferential velocity gradient and axial pressure gradient both diminish with the increase of the tongue section, and the inlet/outlet pressure difference and velocity distribution also reduce with increasing tongue channel section. Finally, for vortex pump with non-uniform section of tongue channel, the head diminishes and the efficiency remains constant approximately with the increase of the tongue width, while the head and the efficiency both diminish for uniform section of tongue channel. Keywords: Vortex pump, Tongue clearance, Non-uniform flow passage, Numerical simulation