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Technical Paper

Numerical Analysis of the Effect of an Idler Disk on Centrifugal Pump Performance

2021-04-06
2021-01-0687
Designing a centrifugal pump impeller comes with challenges due to multiple parameters that affect the pump efficiency. A high velocity gradient exists in the flow between the impeller shroud and sidewall of the pump casing due to one surface stationary and the other moving at a high velocity. The internal rotating flow in the impeller shroud-sidewall gap is a major problem that leads to a decrease in pump performance. This study presents a design modification of the gap between the impeller shroud and the pump casing sidewall using an idler disk located in between, which rotates freely during pump operation. In this paper, a numerical analysis was performed to investigate the idler disk's effect on the pump performance for different volumetric flow rate values and idler disk geometries. ANSYS-2019-R1 was used (FLUENT solver) to carry out the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis for evaluating the performance of the baseline and modified designs in a centrifugal pump.
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