Centrifugal Pump Analysis using Solidworks

CAD model has created keeping in mind the data provided in the video.

For the Flow Simulation following parameters and conditions are used-

1. Rotating Region: Angular velocity of rotating blades is selected as 1000 rad/sec.

2. Boundary Conditions:

• Inlet pressure = 101325 Pa
• Outlet velocity = 10 m/sec

3. Goals :

• SG Av Total Pressure to see the pressure at the outlet
• SG Mass Flow Rate to measure the mass flow rate at the outlet

Basic run with the above parameters is completed and the following results are obtained:

Convergence criteria of 500 iterations are chosen for all the simulations.

1. Cut plot velocity

2. Cut plot Pressure

3. Flow Trajectories

We can see the flow trajectories as shown in the figure above. Here we observe the vortex at the inlet of the pump and as the flow progresses we can see the increase in the velocity at the rotating region.

https://youtu.be/lYMyf0SB2ak

The link to the video of the flow trajectories is given above.

A parametric study of different outlet velocities is conducted and pressure and velocities variations are shown below.

1. For outlet velocity 10 m/sec:

2. For outlet velocity 15 m/sec:

3. For outlet velocity 20 m/sec:

4. For outlet velocity 25 m/sec:

5. For outlet velocity 30 m/sec:

Results of the parametric study obtained by SolidWorks are shown below:

Outlet Velocity (m/sec)	Inlet Pressure (Pa)	Outlet Pressure (Pa)	Pressure ratio	Flow rate (kg/sec)
10	101325	1958048	19.32443	0.4958
15	101325	1743182	17.20387	0.744
20	101325	1029533	10.1607	0.9912
25	101325	978799	9.659995	1.2409
30	101325	934733	9.225097	1.4894

Performance Curve

The graph shows the relationship between the pressure ratio and mass flow rate.

It is observed that as the outlet velocity is increased there is an increase in flow rate. Also, the pressure ratio is inversely proportional to the flow rate. Bernoulli principle is demonstrated in the simulation.

As the pressure ratio at the outlet is decreased the mass flow rate is increased.