A Single-Stage Centripetal Pump-Design Features and an Investigation of the Operating Characteristics

In this paper, we present an experimental and numerical investigation of a single-stage centripetal pump (SSCP). This SSCP is designed to operate in the pump regime, while forcing the working media through impeller-stator flow channels in the radial inward direction. The measured performance curves are characterized by a hysteresis, since the throttle-closing performance curves do not correspond to the throttle-opening performance curves throughout the whole operating range. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to establish these throttle-closing and throttle-opening performance curves. The flow conditions obtained with the CFD simulations confirm that the hydraulic behavior of the SSCP is influenced by the partial circumferential stall that occurs in the impeller-stator flow channels. It was shown that the inflow conditions to the impeller-stator assembly considerably influence the flow rate of the stall cessation, the size of the hysteresis, and the head generated during part-load operations.