On the basis of the three-dimensional design platform of the mixed-flow pump impellers, an optimization design system was developed in this paper by improving the genetic algorithm with application of both strategies of keeping the optimal individu- al and employing the niche. This system took the highest efficiency of the impeller as the optimization objective and employed P, a0, A0h and A0t, which could directly affect the shape and the position of the blade, as optimization parameters. In addition, loss model was used to obtain fast and accurate prediction of the impeller efficiency. The optimization results illustrated that this system had advantages such as high accuracy and fine convergence, thus to effectively improve the design of the mixed-flow pump impellers. Numerical simulation was applied to determine the internal flow fields of the impeller obtained by optimization design, and to analyze both the relative velocity and the pressure distributions. The test results demonstrated that the mixed flow pump had the highest efficiency of 87.2%, the wide and flat high efficiency operation zone, the relatively wide range of blade angle adjustment, fine cavitation performance and satisfied stability.
A loss model for the mixed-flow pump impellers was developed by summarizing a variety of loss calculation formulas systematically.The internal flow field of the impeller was obtained by employing the iterative calculation for S 1 and S 2 stream surfaces to solve the continuity and motion equations of fluid.Based on the calculation method of the flow field and the loss model,it is achieved to predict the impeller performance of the mixed-flow pump and the performance curves of a mixed-flow pump model with adjustable blades.Compared with the test data,the loss model of the mixed-flow pump based on the iterative calculation can predict the impeller performance quickly and accurately,which has a high value on the engineering applications.Based on the test verification,curves of various kinds of losses varied for the flow rate were analyzed under different blade angles.In addition,the mechanisms of various kinds of losses inside the mixed-flow pump impeller were discussed in-depth.
In the mixed-flow pump design, the shape of the flow passage can directly affect the flow capacity and the internal flow, thus influencing hydraulic performance, cavitation performance and operation stability of the mixed-flow pump. However, there is currently a lack of experimental research on the influence mechanism. Therefore, in order to analyze the effects of subtle variations of the flow passage on the mixed-flow pump performance, the frustum cone surface of the end part of inlet contraction flow passage of the mixed-flow pump is processed into a cylindrical surface and a test rig is built to carry out the hydraulic performance experiment. In this experiment, parameters, such as the head, the efficiency, and the shaft power, are measured, and the pressure fluctuation and the noise signal are also collected. The research results suggest that after processing the inlet flow passage, the head of the mixed-flow pump significantly goes down; the best efficiency of the mixed-flow pump drops by approximately 1.5%, the efficiency decreases more significantly under the large flow rate; the shaft power slightly increases under the large flow rate, slightly decreases under the small flow rate. In addition, the pressure fluctuation amplitudes on both the impeller inlet and the diffuser outlet increase significantly with more drastic pressure fluctuations and significantly lower stability of the internal flow of the mixed-flow pump. At the same time, the noise dramatically increases. Overall speaking, the subtle variation of the inlet flow passage leads to a significant change of the mixed-flow pump performance, thus suggesting a special attention to the optimization of flow passage. This paper investigates the influence of the flow passage variation on the mixed-flow pump performance by experiment, which will benefit the optimal design of the flow passage of the mixed-flow pump.
