Numerical investigation of the transient flow in a centrifugal pump stage

The knowledge of the flow behavior in pump stages which consist of an impeller, a bladed diffuser and a bladed return channel is of great importance for the design of multistage centrifugal pumps. Especially the Interaction of the impeller flow with the stationary diffuser blades and the behavior of the return channel blades affect the efficiency of a pump stage in a considerable way. In this contribution the transient flow in an industrial centrifugal pump stage, which has an impeller with seven blades, a radial diffuser with ten blades and a return channel with also ten separate blades, has been simulated numerical by using the commercial software code CFX-5.7. Because of the unfavorable ratio of blade numbers a complete meshing of all flow channels was necessary. In consequence the cumulative amount of grid nodes reached a number of nearly 6 million nodes. As a result of the numerical investigation of the time dependent flow accomplished for this contribution, the influence of the rotating impeller on the flow in the stationary parts of the pump is presented in detail. All flow parameters are shown as a function of time and are discussed with respect to the position of the impeller relative to the stator blades.