Applied Mathematical Modelling 35 (2011) 242249

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Applied Mathematical Modelling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apm

The ow simulation of a low-specic-speed high-speed centrifugal pump

B. Jafarzadeh a,*, A. Hajari b, M.M. Alishahi a, M.H. Akbari a
a

High Performance Computing Center (HPCC), Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
Advanced Materials Research Center (AMRC), Materials & Metallurgical Engineering Department, Iran University of Science & Technology (IUST),
Tehran 16844-1314, Iran

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 5 July 2009
Received in revised form 2 May 2010
Accepted 25 May 2010
Available online 31 May 2010
Keywords:
Centrifugal pump
Turbulence modeling
CFD
Inducer

a b s t r a c t
In this paper a general three-dimensional simulation of turbulent uid ow is presented to
predict velocity and pressure elds for a centrifugal pump. A commercial CFD code was
used to solve the governing equations of the ow eld. In order to study the most suitable
turbulence model, three known turbulence models of standard ke, RNG and RSM were
applied. The complex ow conguration required us to use around 5,800,000 cells, and
12 computational nodes (processors) for parallel computing. Simulation results in the form
of characteristic curves were compared with available experimental data, and an acceptable agreement was obtained. Additionally, effect of number of blades on the efciency
of pump was studied. The number of blades was changed from 5 to 7. The results show that
the impeller with 7 blades has the highest head coefcient. Finally, it was observed also
that the position of blades with respect to the tongue of volute has great effect on the start
of the separation. Thus, to analyze the effect of blade number on the characteristics of the
pump, the position of blade and tongue should be similar to each other. Investigations of
this kind may help to reduce the required experimental work for the development and
design of such devices.
2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Centrifugal pumps are prevalent for many different applications in the industrial and other sectors. Nevertheless, their
design and performance prediction process is still a difcult task, mainly due to the great number of free geometric parameters involved. On the other hand the signicant cost and time of the trial-and-error process by constructing and testing
physical prototypes reduces the prot margins of the pump manufacturers. For this reason, CFD analysis is currently being
used in hydrodynamic design for many different pump types [13].
Numerical simulations can provide quite accurate information on the uid behavior in the machine, and thus help the
engineer to obtain a thorough performance evaluation of a particular design. However, the challenge of improving the
hydraulic efciency requires an inverse design process, in which a signicant number of alternative designs must be evaluated. Despite the great progress in recent years, even CFD analysis remains rather expensive for the industry, and the need
for faster mesh generators and solvers is imperative [4]. Some of the recent investigations in this eld are mentioned in the
following.
Guleren and Pinarbasi [5] analyzed a centrifugal pump by solving NavierStokes equations, coupled with the standard ke
turbulence model. Their pump consisted of an impeller having ve blades and a low rotating speed of 890 rpm. Numerical
simulations were performed on a commercial FLUENT package assuming steady ow. Asuaje et al. [6] performed a 3D-CFD

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: behroz_jf@yahoo.com (B. Jafarzadeh).
0307-904X/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apm.2010.05.021

B. Jafarzadeh et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 35 (2011) 242249

243

simulation of impeller and volute of a centrifugal pump using CFX code with a specic speed of 32. In this simulation, structured grid was used in the impeller and unstructured grid in the volute. ke, kx and SST turbulent models were used. They
found velocity and pressure elds for different ow rates and radial thrust on the pump shaft. Cui et al. [7] investigated the
effect of number of splitting blades for long, mid and short blades using a one-equation turbulent model. Their computations
were performed using commercial FINE/TURBO 6.2 at a specic speed of 18. Their results show that the bulk ow in the
impeller has an important inuence on the pump performance. Anagnostopoulos [8] simulated 3D turbulent ow in a radial
pump impeller for a constant rotational speed of 1500 rpm based on the solution of the RANS equations. The ow equations
were discretized using the control volume approach, and the standard ke model was adopted for the turbulence closure.
The computations for the steady ow eld in a particular impeller were presented. The characteristic performance curves
for the entire load range of the impeller were constructed, and their pattern was found reasonable and in agreement with
theory. None of the previous works includes study of 3D modeling within a full domain considering interaction between rotor and stator of a high centrifugal pump using various turbulence models.
In the current study the effect of various turbulence models (ke, RNG and RSM) on the ow eld and efciency of a highspeed centrifugal pump has been carried out. Using the most suitable model the effect of blade number on the specic characteristic of the pump has been investigated.
2. Pump specications
One of the signicant methods to prevent cavitation is to make use of inducers in high-speed pumps. The simulated pump
includes a two-way inducer and a 6-blade impeller with Dimpeller/Dinlet of 1.53 and Doutlet/Dinlet of 0.56 (Dimpeller, Dinlet and
Doutlet are, respectively, diameter of impeller, diameter of volutes inlet and diameter of diffusers outlet). The specic speed
is dened as:

Ns

XQ 0:5
H0:75

where Q is volume ow rate and H is the pump head. For the pump studied in the current work Ns is 16.32 with rotational
speed over 13,000 rpm. The three-dimensional conguration of pump and its main parts are shown in Fig. 1.
3. Governing equations
Since the uid surrounding the impeller rotates around the axis of the pump the equations must be organized in two reference frames, stationary and rotating reference frames. To accomplish this, the Multiple Reference Frame (MRF) model has
been used. In this approach, the governing equations are set in a rotating reference frame, and Coriolis and centrifugal forces
are added as source terms. Continuity and momentum equations of an incompressible ow are as the following:

r:u 0;
r:quu rp rs s:

2
3

In the above equations u is the relative velocity of uid, s the stress tensor and s is the source term, which consists of
Coriolis and centrifugal forces

s 2qX  u  qX  X  r:

Here X is rotational speed and r position vector.

Fig. 1. Different parts of the simulated pump.

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Fig. 2. Structured grids around impeller blades and inducer helix.

4. Grid generation
The pump is divided into three regions, inlet, rotary and outlet. Each region is discretized independently; structured grids
are used for inlet and rotary regions, but a mixture of structured and unstructured grids are used for the outlet region. In
Fig. 2 the structured grids around blades and inducer are shown. In the present study, four sets of grids were used for grid
study, and considering the results the case with 5,835,589 cells was selected for the nal simulation. Table 1 shows the sets
of grids which were used for grid study.
The non-dimensional head and power coefcients in Table 1 are dened as:

Head coefficient w

gH

X2 r 2

where w is head coefcient, H is the head of the pump, X is rotational speed and r is outer radius of the impeller.
Power coefcient

Power coefficient Pc

Psh

qX3 r5

where Psh is the consumed shaft power and q is density. Psh also is dened as:

Psh M  X;

where M is the measured torque.

5. Boundary conditions
In the present study, volume ow rate and pressure outlet boundary conditions were used for the inlet and outlet, respectively. Outer walls were stationary but the inner walls were rotational. There were interfaces between the stationary and
rotational regions. Non slip boundary conditions have been imposed over the impeller blades and walls, the volute casing
and the inlet wall and the roughness of all walls is considered 100 lm. The turbulence intensity at the inlet totally depends
on the upstream history of ow. Since the uid in the suction tank is undisturbed, the turbulence intensity for all conditions
is considered 1%. Water was used as a working uid in ambient condition.
6. Numerical scheme
6.1. Solver
In order to calculate the ow eld a commercial CFD code, FLUENT, was used. The governing integral equations for the
conservation of mass, momentum and when appropriate, energy and other scalars such as turbulence were solved. Two
numerical solvers of segregated and coupled employ a similar discretization process, but the approach used for linearizing

Table 1
Grid study data.
Condition

Number of cells

Number of nodes

Head coefcient

Power coefcient

1
2
3
4

1,952,914
3,558,151
5,835,589
7,251,216

5
7
12
14

0.705
0.673
0.637
0.629

0.0311
0.0286
0.0274
0.0269

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245

and solving the discretized equations is different. The segregated solver solves the governing equations sequentially, while
the coupled solves them simultaneously [9]. In the present analysis, the segregated solver was used since the coupled solver
is usually used in high compressible ows in which the ow and energy equations are coupled, and this method often results
in a faster solution convergence. A trade-off involved in the use of the coupled solver is that it requires more memory (1.52
times) than the segregated solver.
The Pressure-velocity coupling methods recommended for steady-state calculations are SIMPLE or SIMPLEC [10,11]. For
relatively uncomplicated problems in which convergence is limited by the pressure-velocity coupling, the convergence could
be achieved more quickly using SIMPLEC. With SIMPLEC, the pressure-correction under-relaxation factor is generally set to
1.0, which aids in the convergence speed-up. In some problems, however, increasing the pressure-correction under-relaxation to 1.0 can lead to instability due to the high grid skewness. In the present simulation, SIMPLE algorithm was preferred
considering the complexity of the ow and grid qualities.
6.2. Modeling of the rotary region
FLUENT provides a powerful set of features for solving problems in which uid rotates around an axis, such as ows inside
turbomachineries in different methods. Some of these methods include multiple reference frames (MRF), mixing plane and
sliding mesh models. Each method has a different accuracy and computational expenses. The rst and second models are
appropriate for steady ows and for cases in which the interactions between rotor and stator are negligible. For instance,
for a pump with bladeless stators the MRF can be used as a suitable approach. The sliding mesh model is appropriate where
the interaction between rotor and stators is noticeable and the unsteadiness of problem is supposed to be reproduced. Since
in the present problem, the stator has no blade and the unsteadiness of the problem can be ignored, the MRF model was
used.
7. Results and discussion
7.1. Modeling of turbulence
In the present study, we intend to investigate the effect of number of blades on the pump efciency. Additionally we want
to choose the most efcient turbulence model for the problem. Considering the various turbulence models, three known turbulence models of standard ke, RNG ke and RSM are utilized at a constant blade number of 6 for the pump. In order to
show the results in a more practical order non-dimensional parameters dened in reference [12] are used and for the sake
of generality the data are reported in non-dimensional form.
Fig. 3 shows the head coefcient vs. ow coefcient for the three turbulence models compared with available experimental data. The curves show that with increasing the ow coefcient, the head coefcient is decreased. Comparing various turbulence models data with experimental data, it has been concluded that each of these turbulence models provide acceptable
results, but two models RNG ke and RSM show better agreement than the standard ke model.
In the above gure ow coefcient is dened as:

Qc

Xr 3

where Q is volume ow rate and the efciency of the pump is dened as:

Fig. 3. Head coefcient vs. ow coefcient with three different turbulence models and one available experimental data.

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Fig. 4. Power coefcient vs. ow coefcient with three different turbulence models.

qQHg
Psh

 100:

The power coefcient and efciency curves vs. ow coefcient are plotted in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. As shown in Fig. 4
in low and high mass ow rates different turbulence models approach each other. In Fig. 5, in addition to low and high mass
ow rates, in mid mass ow rates, difference between various turbulence models are low because efciency considers the
effect of both head and power.
In most of the previous models of centrifugal pumps, the impeller and volute were simulated separately, and the interaction between them was ignored. In present work, however, all of such interactions are taken into account.
Fig. 6 indicates static pressure distribution around the impeller and volute in three turbulence models (standard ke model, RNG ke model and RSM). The results show that the pressure distribution is predicted similarly using the three turbulence
models, moreover it appears that RNG and RSM models predict a lower minimum pressure at the entrance of the impeller
(approximately 2.59e+05 pascal in standard ke model, 9.36e+04 pascal in RNG ke model and 9.09e+04 pascal RSM). It is
found out that these models can predict cavitation phenomenon sooner than standard ke model. In these counters with
increasing the radius of impeller and obtaining energy of pump the velocity of the uid increases and in entrance of diffuser,
the velocity is converted to pressure thus the velocity exits with high pressure.
In the case of ke model, two additional transport equations are solved, but in the RSM model, seven additional transport
equations must be solved in 3D [13,14]. Since RNG ke has lower number of transport equations to solve, therefore it needs
lower memory compared to RSM, we select RNG ke model to continue of other parts.
Of course computations with the RNG ke model, due to the extra terms and functions in the governing equations and a
greater degree of non-linearity of standard ke model tend to take 1015% more CPU time.
Compared with the ke model, the RSM requires additional memory and CPU time due to the increased number of the
transport equations for Reynolds stresses. However, efcient programming in FLUENT has reduced the CPU time per iteration
signicantly. On average, the RSM in FLUENT requires 5060% more CPU time per iteration compared to the ke model. Furthermore, 1520% more memory is needed [9].

Fig. 5. Efciency vs. ow coefcient with three different turbulence models.

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Fig. 6. Contours of static pressure (pascal) with different turbulence models.

Fig. 7. Head coefcient vs. ow coefcient with different number of blades.

Fig. 8. Power coefcient vs. ow coefcient with different number of blades.

247

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Fig. 9. Efciency vs. ow coefcient with different number of blades.

Aside from the time per iteration, the choice of turbulence model can affect the ability of FLUENT to obtain a converged
solution. For example, the standard ke model is known to be slightly over-diffusive in certain situations, while the RNG ke
model is designed such that the turbulent viscosity is reduced in response to high rates of strain. Since diffusion has a stabilizing effect on the numerics, the RNG model is more likely to be susceptible to instability in steady-state solutions. How-

Fig. 10. Velocity magnitude (m/s) in the volute tongue with different number of blades.

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249

ever, this should not necessarily be seen as a disadvantage of the RNG model, since these characteristics make it more
responsive to important physical instabilities such as time-dependent turbulent vortex shedding. Similarly, the RSM may
take more iterations to converge than the ke model due to the strong coupling between the Reynolds stresses and the mean
ow [9].
7.2. Effect of blade number on the pump characteristics
In this section, the effect of number of blades on the pump efciency will be analyzed through three blade number of 5, 6
and 7.
Fig. 7 shows the head coefcient curves vs. ow coefcient for three cases of 5, 6 and 7-blade pumps. In low ow rates,
head coefcient for 6 and 7-blade pumps are very close and higher than 5-blade pump. With increasing the ow rate, the
head coefcient for the 5-blade pump does not change but this characteristic for 6 and 7-blade pumps decreases. The 6blade, however, has a steeper slope than the 7-blade pump and shows a strong decrease of head coefcient at higher ow
rates. Generally, it is clear that the impeller with 7 blades has the highest head coefcient when compared with 5 and 6blade pumps at all ranges.
Power coefcient and efciency curves are shown in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively. Fig. 8 indicates that all the cases are close
together particularly at high ow coefcients. For the efciency, it is expected for the curves correspond to the 6-blade case
(Fig. 9) to locate between the two other curves corresponding to the 5 and 7-blade cases. However, because of a different
positioning of the 6-blade impeller with respect to the tongue, the simulation results for this case are not as expected.
Noting the fact that the problem is solved in steady-state situation and the position of the rst blade (Fig. 10) is the same
in all the pumps and moreover, other blades have been considered relative to this blade and the pumps impellers rotate
equally but the angles between two consecutive blades are different (72 in 5-blade pump, 60 in 6-blade pump and
51.43 in 7-blade pump), therefore the distances between the nearest blade before the tongue and tongue denoted by
parameter d, Fig. 10 are different in three pumps.
Fig. 10 shows that this distance has a great inuence on the ow eld. 6-blade pump has a larger distance of blade with
the tongue; therefore ow separation has begun later than the other two cases. The unique behavior of the 6-blade pump is
related to its large distance of blade with the tongue. Larger distance has stronger backow effects.
8. Conclusions
In the present investigation numerical simulation of a high-speed centrifugal pump was performed. At rst the optimum
turbulence model for the problem was found. Considering the available experimental data, the best result appears to be obtained by RNG ke model. Investigation on the effect of number of blades on the efciency head coefcient as the selection
criteria shows that the impeller with 7 blades has the highest head coefcient when compared with 5 and 6-blade pumps at
all ranges.
Finally, it was observed also that the position of blades with respect to the tongue of volute has great effect on the start of
the separation. Thus, to analyze the effect of blade number on the characteristics of the pump, all pumps should have similar
positioning of the blades with respect to the tongue.
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