Pressure fluctuation characteristics in the pressurization unit of a multiphase pump

The tip clearance induces the tip leakage vortex (TLV), which has a great impact on the pressure fluctuation characteristics of the multiphase pump. To investigate the effect of the tip clearance on the pressure fluctuations, based on the Reynolds time-averaged Navier-Stokes equation and the shear stress transfer (SST) k - omega turbulence model, the three-dimensional turbulent flow in the pump is numerically simulated for different tip clearances in the water and gas-liquid two-phase cases by using the ANSYS CFX software and the results are verified with experimental data. It is shown the greater pressure fluctuation intensity corresponds with the TLV both in the water and gas-liquid two-phase cases. In the meantime, the location of the maximum pressure fluctuation intensity is related to the tip clearance size. In addition, for different tip clearances, the pressure fluctuation intensity with the rotor and stator interaction (RSI) is relatively larger. The difference is that when R-tc = 1.5 mm , the pressure fluctuation intensity near the impeller middle point is also relatively larger. On the whole, the pressure fluctuation intensity in the gas-liquid two-phase case is larger than that in the water case. Furthermore, the gas causes the frequency of the high-amplitude pressure fluctuation in the impeller and the diffuser to be shifted from 7 f(n) (f(n) denotes impeller rotational frequency) and 3 f(n) to the low-frequency region, respectively. The pressure fluctuations at the blade-passing frequency (BPF) and the multiple BPFs gradually disappear. Meanwhile, the amplitude at the dominant frequency in the gas-liquid two-phase case is at least one order of magnitude smaller than that in the water case, and the peak-to-peak value of the pressure fluctuation is also much smaller.