EFFECT OF TWO DIFFUSER TYPES OF VOLUTE ON

PRESSURE FLUCTUATION IN CENTRIFUGAL PUMP

UNDER PART-LOAD CONDITION
Fan Meng, Ji Pei , Shouqi Yuan , Yin Luo, Jia Chen

Abstract
In order to adapt various installation positions of pipeline, the volute of centrifugal pump needs to be
designed into different types, the volute with tangential diffuser and the volute with radial diffuser.
Generally speaking, different diffuser types of volute will affect the performance of pump, while in this
paper, little effect can be found. In addition, different diffuser types of volute have a strong influence on
flow characteristic in pump and piping system. Especially under part-load condition, pressure
fluctuation will be affected more obviously. Two diffuser types of volute were designed to study the
ISROMAC 2016 effect on pressure fluctuation features of centrifugal pump under part-load condition, with the same
International volute design parameters and impeller parameters. The unsteady, three dimensional turbulent flow in
Symposium on the pump was simulated by using ANSYS CFX 14.5 in this paper. Then the distribution of pressure
Transport fluctuation intensity in the centrifugal pump is achieved and analyzed comparatively under part-load
Phenomena and condition. It shows that the periodic features in pressure fluctuation near its tongue are the same for
Dynamics of two diffuser types of volute, however in the diffuser of the volute, the values of the pressure fluctuation
Rotating Machinery in radial diffuser is greater than that in tangential diffuser. The results can provide a useful reference for

Hawaii, Honolulu designing the diffuser of volute in centrifugal pump.

April 10-15, 2016 Keywords
Part-load condition —Tangential diffuser — Radial diffuser — Pressure fluctuation

Nation Research Centre of Pumps, Jiangsu University Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China

Fan Meng: 798836232@qq.com

INTRODUCTION 1 NUMERICAL SIMULATION

1. 1Geometry of the pump
Centrifugal pump has two important flow components that
are impeller and volute casing basically which together The model pump consists of the impeller, suction and
determine the centrifugal pump performance. As an important volute. The main geometry parameters of the impeller and
flow components within a centrifugal pump, volute casing plays the volute are shown in Table 1. Two diffuser types of
an important role of diversion and rise pressure. In order to volute are designed. The first one is the tangential diffuser
adapt various installation positions of pipeline, the volute of type of volute, the second one is the radial diffuser type of
centrifugal pump needs to be designed into different types. volute, and the volute design parameters and impeller
With the development of computational algorithms and parameters is the same. The models of impeller and two
computer technology, the application of CFD (computational diffuser types of volute are shown in Figure 1. The
fluid dynamics) is becoming more and more popular for impeller is shrouded with 6 twist and backswept blades,
studying the pressure fluctuation in pumps. with a specific speed of ns=3.65nQ0.5/H0.75=162.3. The
The pressure fluctuation in centrifugal pump has been main design parameters of the pump for: rotation speed
studied by many researchers. Glc M et al [1] and Kergourlay et n=2900rpm, design flow Q DES=330m3/h, and design head
al [2] studied the effect of blade on pump performance and flow HDES=48m.
field. Wang Wenquan et al [3] and Germano M [4] investigated
the Large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow numerical TABLE 1 THE MAIN GEOMETRICAL AND DESIGN
computation. Longatte F et al [5]search the rotor-stator-circuit PARAMETERS OF THE RADIAL CENTRIFUGAL PUMP
impeller value Volute value
interactions in a centrifugal pump. Other researchers reported
Dj/ mm 135 D3/ mm 235
the numerical simulation on pressure fluctuations such as the D2/ mm 225 b3/ mm 55
work by Kitano Majidi et al [6], Guo Pengcheng et al [7] and Zhu b2/ mm 32.5
Lei et al [8]. However, few researchers study the effect of φ/o 120
different diffuser types of volute on pressure fluctuation. β2/o 34
Z 6
In this study, two diffuser types of volute were designed to
study the effect on pressure fluctuation features of centrifugal
pump under part-load condition, with the same volute design
parameters and impeller parameters.
 (C) Impeller (D) Suction

FIGURE 2 Computational mesh for two diffuser types of

(A) The volute with radial diffuser volute

Several turbulence models are available in CFX, some

have very specific applications while others can be
applied to a wider class of flows with a reasonable degree
of confidence. However, choosing an appropriate
turbulence model for a CFD simulation in a pump is
always a challenge. In this study, three-dimensional
unsteady simulations were conducted by solving the
RANS equations in the design procedure with shear
stress transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model.

1.3 Boundary conditions

(B) The volute with tangential diffuser
The interfaces between rotor and stator are set as
FIGURE 1 The model of impeller and volute with two diffuser ‘Transient Rotor Stator’, while the interfaces between the
types stator and the stator are set as ‘None’. The simulation
cycle is set as 6 with 2 degree per time step. Monitoring
data of the sixth cycle are analyzed. The total pressure is
1.2. Mesh setup and Turbulence model used in the inlet and the flow direction is normal to the
The whole computational domain is made up of the boundary. The mass flow rate is specified in the outlet. All
suction, impeller and volute. Computational domains are solid walls are no slip and the wall is set as smooth wall in
created by using the grid generation tool ANSYS ICEM- the physical surfaces of the volute, impeller and suction.
CFD, and the mesh is refined in the walls of the channels. The high resolution algorithm is employed to solve the
The number of mesh is 2630149 and the details of the equations. The maximum residuals are set to 10-5, and
mesh are shown in Figure 2. the values of head, efficiency and power are monitored.
In this paper, the numerical analysis will be done
under the part-load condition, Q/Q DES=0.8. To study
pressure fluctuation in the centrifugal pump for two
diffuser types of volute, the point c1 are set near the
tongue and the point c2 are set in the diffuser. The
position of monitor points will be shown in figure 3.

(A) Radial diffuser (B) Tangential diffuser

 (B) Comparison of the efficiency
(A) The volute with radial diffuser
FIGURE 4 Comparison of performance for two diffuser
types of volute

As shown in the Figure 4, the values of head in the

volute with radial diffuser and tangential diffuser decrease
gradually with the increase of flow rate. In the volute with
radial diffuser, the maximum head value is 59.04m, and
the minimum head value is 46.57m. In the volute with
tangential diffuser, the maximum head value is 59.18m,
and the minimum head value is 46.52m.
In the two diffuser types of volute, the efficiency value
under part-load condition have the biggest difference and
(B) The volute with tangential diffuser that are almost same under other condition. Therefore, it
is necessary and significant to study the pressure
FIGURE 3 The location of monitor point fluctuation characteristics under part-load condition.

2 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 2.2 Pressure fluctuation intensity distribution

2.1 Comparison of performance According to the solution of the turbulence model, the
phase average values were obtained for each node,
By using the numerical simulations under 3 different
without considering the randomness of instantaneous
flow rates, the predicted pump performance was obtained
pressure fluctuation. Because the instantaneous pressure
for two diffuser types of volute, the volute with radial
fluctuation has less influence, compared with the phase
diffuser and the volute with tangential diffuser. As shown
average value. Using
in Figure 4(A). The calculation of each operating point
value is the average head and efficiency of a period under statistical analysis method to define the pressure
unsteady numerical simulation. fluctuation intensity can guarantee the analysis of the
phenomenon on internal flow more accurate and
comprehensive. We define the pressure at a node of a
period time in the grid is
p( x, y, z, t ) ,
the pressure is
converted into dimensionless pressure fluctuation
coefficient:
P
Cp  2
(1)
0.5ρu2
Where u2 is the circular velocity at impeller outlet, is
the fluid density. If the impeller rotation cycle is T, then the
average pressure coefficient value in a period and pressure
(A) Comparison of the efficiency fluctuation intensity can be shown as the following formula
cited by Ji Pei (13): outer side is higher than that of inner side. The large gradient
distribution of pressure fluctuation intensity were shown in
1 N
n the position close to the wall. Compare the pressure
Cp 
N

n
C p(x ,y ,z ,
1 360
T) (2) fluctuation intensity in radial diffuser with that in tangential
diffuser, the distribution of pressure fluctuation intensity is
more average and the gradient of pressure fluctuation is
bigger.

2
1 N
n 
C *
p  N  C p(x ,y ,z ,
360
T )  Cp (3)
 n 1 

N  360
Under part-load conditions, two cross section of fluid
channel were created respectively in the diffuser and near
the tongue of volute with two diffuser types, as shown in (A) Radial diffuser (B) Tangential diffuser
Figure5.
FIGURE 7 The pressure fluctuation intensity near the tongue
of volute

As shown in the Figure 7, near the tongue of volute,

whether in radial diffuser or in tangential diffuser, under part-
load condition (0.8Q DES), the large pressure fluctuation
intensity were shown at the junction of the impeller outlet and
the tongue inlet, which present that the rotor-stator
interaction of impeller and tongue will cause large pressure
fluctuation near the tongue. The pressure fluctuation
intensity is smaller far away from the outlet of impeller.
Compare the pressure fluctuation intensity in radial diffuser
of volute with that in tangential diffuser of volute, the
(A) Radial diffuser (B) Tangential diffuser distribution of pressure fluctuation intensity is more average
but the gradient of pressure fluctuation is smaller. The
FIGURE 5 The cross section of two diffuser types of volute minimum value of pressure fluctuation intensity in tangential
diffuser of volute is smaller than that in radial diffuser of
The distribution of pressure fluctuation intensity in two volute.
diffuser types of volute under part-load condition are shown
in Figure 6 and Figure 7. 2.3 Time domain and frequency domain analysis
Different diffuser types of volute have little effect on
performance of pump from the Figure4, but can exert an
influence on flow characteristic in pump and piping system.
Especially under part-load condition, pressure fluctuation will
be affected more obviously.
When the impeller blade passes by the volute tongue, a
pressure fluctuation is initiated by the rotor-stator interaction
of impeller and tongue. In the case of strong impeller–volute
(A) Radial diffuser (B) Tangential diffuser interaction, the pressure fluctuation become high enough to
induce high vibration to pump components. So under part-
FIGURE 6 The pressure fluctuation intensity in the diffuser of load condition, by using numerical analysis, in the two types
volute of volute, the point c1 near the tongue and the point c2 in the
outlet are set to obtain the time domain characteristics on
As shown in the Figure 6, in the diffuser of volute, pressure fluctuation, as shown in Figure8.
whether in radial diffuser or tangential diffuser, under part-
load condition (0.8Q DES), the pressure fluctuation intensity of
 near the tongue and the point c2 in the diffuser are shown in
Figure 10 and Figure 11. Where the blade passing frequency
is f=n/60×Z=290Hz

FIGURE 8 The time domain graph of pressure fluctuation

near the tongue

FIGURE 10 The frequency domain graph of point c1 near

the tongue of volute with two diffuser types

FIGURE 9 The time domain graph of pressure fluctuation

in the diffuser of volute

As can be seen from the Figure 8, under part-load

condition (0.8QDES) the change trend of pressure fluctuation
near the tongue of volute with radial diffuser and the tongue
of volute with tangential diffuser are basically same, and
exhibit an evident periodicity properties. The peak value of
pressure fluctuation is same near tongue of volute with two FIGURE 11 The frequency domain graph of point c2 in
diffuser types. the diffuser of volute with two diffuser types
As can be seen from the Figure 9, under part-load
condition (0.8QDES) the change trend of pressure fluctuation As shown in the Figure 10, near the tongue, under part-
in the diffuser of volute with radial diffuser and the diffuser of load condition (0.8QDES), the pressure fluctuation frequency
volute with tangential diffuser are basically same, but the based on blade pass frequency in two diffuser types of
peak value of pressure fluctuation in the diffuser of volute volute, and the pressure fluctuation amplitude in radial
with radial diffuser is greater than that of pressure fluctuation diffuser of volute is greater than that in tangential diffuser of
in the diffuser of volute with tangential diffuser. It also exhibit volute.
an evident periodicity properties. The pressure fluctuation As shown in the Figure 11, in the diffuser of volute,
amplitude different is small in two diffuser types of volute. under part-load condition (0.8Q DES), the pressure fluctuation
By comparison, the conclusion can be drawn, the frequency also is based on blade pass frequency in two
periodic features in pressure fluctuation near its tongue are diffuser types, and the pressure fluctuation amplitude in
the same for two diffuser types of volute, but in the diffuser of tangential diffuser of volute is greater than that in radial
the volute, the peak value of the pressure fluctuation in radial diffuser of volute.
diffuser is greater than that in tangential diffuser.
By using fast fourier transform (FFT), under part-load CONCLUSION
condition (0.8QDES) in the volute with two diffuser types, the
In this paper, by using the unsteady numerical
pressure fluctuation frequency domain graph of the point c1 simulation analysis of whole flow field in two diffuser types of
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS [11] Jianjun Feng et al. Application of different
turbulence models in unsteady flow simulations of a radial
This study was supported by Natural Science
diffuser pump [J]. Journal of Forsch Ingenieurwes: 123–133,
Foundation of Jiangsu Province Youth Fund (Grant No.
2010, 74 (3): 123-133.
BK20140554), National Natural Science Foundation of China
[12] Kim, Jin Young et al. A numerical study of pump
(Grant No. 51409123), China Postdoctoral Science
characteristics of a concrete volute pump with various types
Foundation (Grant No. 2014M560402) Postdoctoral Science
of volute [C]. The ASME-JSME-KSME 2011 Joint Fluid
Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. 1401069B) and
Engineering Conference.
the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu
[13] Ji Pei et al. Numerical investigation on periodic flow
Higher Education Institutions (PAPD). The author make a
unsteadiness in a centrifugal pump with volute [M]. ASME
grateful acknowledgement for the 4CPump research group.
2013 Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting.
[14] Wang wen ji et al. Optimum hydraulic design for a
radial diffuser pump using orthogonal experimental method
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