The Influence of Guide Vanes on Force Imposed to Bidirectional Shaft Tubular Pump

Abstract

【Objective】 Bidirectional shaft tubular pump is a device commonly used in hydraulic projects. The aim of this paper is to study the impact of guide vane numbers on the force imposed to the pump when it is under different working conditions. 【Method】 The investigation was based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experiments conducted in a real engineering project. Water flow in the pump was turbulent and described by the RNG k-ε turbulence model. The experimental data was used to calibrate the model, and the validated model was then used to analyze the impact of guide vane numbers on the pump under different working conditions. 【Result】 Under back and forth operation condition, the average axial force imposed to the pump by different guide vane numbers was comparable. Making the ratio of guide vane numbers to blade numbers an integer increased the peak axial force pulsation significantly, risking pump operation. The radial force imposed to the impeller was minimal and can be neglected in design. It was also found that setting the number of guide vanes even can reduce the radial force imposed to the pump by the guide vane. 【Conclusion】 The number of guide vanes and the number of blades combined to affect the force imposed to the pump. Our results indicated that design should avoid the ratio of the guide vane numbers to the blade numbers being an integer.

Keywords

• guide vane number
• force analysis
• two-way shaft tubular pump device
• numerical simulation
• model test