Characteristics of Centrifugal Pumps Working in Direct or Reverse Mode: Focus on the Unsteady Radial Thrust

Abstract

Experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out to study the behaviour of a centrifugal pump operating in direct mode or turbine mode. First of all, the complete characteristics (head, power, and efficiency) were measured experimentally using a specific test loop. The numerical data obtained from a CFD study performed with the ANSYS CFX software and based on steady state and unsteady approaches were compared to the experimental results. The representation in the 4 operating quadrants shows the various operating zones where the head is always positive. Then, the unsteady radial forces were analysed from transient computations. The results obtained for the pump operation are consistent with the literature and extended to the nonnormal operating conditions, namely, for very high flowrate values. The evolution of the radial load during turbine operation is presented for various partial flow operating points.