Computational investigation of flow regimes and performance characteristics of a pump operating as a turbine

Rodrigues, A, 2006. Computational investigation of flow regimes and performance characteristics of a pump operating as a turbine. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This project deals with the investigation of the physical significance of the internal hydraulics of a pump operating as a turbine through the means of computational fluid dynamics. The pump as turbine is a new application area for CFD with very limited studies published. A commercial code is used to enable the modelling of the pump as turbine and thorough discretization is carried out to understand the most suitable solution parameters for the modelling

The 'Hydraulic Loss' methodology is developed to analyse seven individual zones within the geometry of the pump as turbine with the aim of understanding two major unattended problems. The first concerns methods for translating actual geometry into a mesh which is solvable yet still accurate. Four interface models between the volute and impeller are investigated and compared against already available experimental data. The most accurate interface is the geometrical model that closely represents the actual geometry, whilst the least accurate is the less complex geometrical interface model. CFD has shown that accurate PAT geometry representation is necessary to accurately predict the performance characteristics.

The second is with respect to the improvement of the performance characteristics of the pump as turbine through geometry modification. Four geometrical modification stages are investigated and three are compared to the available experimental data. CFD has shown good agreement with the experimental performance characteristics and has been able to detect the effects on losses and performance due to the different modifications. The modifications have shown that impeller rounding, back-shroud sharpening, and casing rings have improved the performance of the pumps as turbine whilst the impeller eye enlargement has improvement in performance in the part load region only.

The computational method has allowed for practical guidelines on the selection of pumps for turbine operation. Recommendations are made for further work in the area of PATs.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Rodrigues, A.
Date:	2006
ISBN:	9781369324679
Identifiers:	Number Type PQ10290218 Other
Divisions:	Professional Services > Libraries and Learning Resources
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	23 Jun 2021 14:05
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2023 15:45
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/43171

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