A Study on the Performance and Internal Flow Characteristics of a Very Low Specific Speed Centrifugal Pump

In the very low specific speed range (n(s) < 0.25, non-dimensional), the efficiency of centrifugal pump designed by a conventional method is very low in common. Therefore, positive-displacement pumps have long been used widely. Recently, since the centrifugal pumps are becoming higher in rotational speed and smaller in size, there expects to develop a new centrifugal pump with a high performance to replace the positive-displacement pumps. The purpose of this study is to investigate the internal flow characteristics of a very low specific speed centrifugal pump and to examine the effect of internal flow pattern on pump performance. The results show that the theoretical head definition of semi-open impeller should be revised by the consideration of high slip factor in the semi-open impeller, and the leakage flow through the tip clearance results in a large effect on the impeller internal flow. Strong reverse flow at the outlet of semi-open impeller reduces the absolute tangential velocity considerably, and the decreased absolute tangential velocity increasese the slip factor with the reduction of theoretical head.