Numerical Assessment of the Hydrodynamic Behavior of a Volute Centrifugal Pump Handling Emulsion

Entropy

Idir Belaidi¹  Mathieu Specklin²  Lila Achour²  Smaine Kouidri² 

[1] LEMI, FT, University of M’hamed Bougara, Avenue de L’indépendance, Boumerdes 35000, Algeria;LIFSE, Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, CNAM, HESAM University, F-75013 Paris, France;

关键词: centrifugal pump;    oil–water emulsions;    CFD;    non-Newtonian;    shear-thinning;   

DOI  :  10.3390/e24020221

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Although emulsion pumping is a subject of growing interest, a detailed analysis of the fluid dynamic phenomena occurring inside these machines is still lacking. Several computational investigations have been conducted to study centrifugal pumps carrying emulsion by analyzing their overall performance, but no studies involved the rheological behavior of such fluids. The purpose of this study is to perform a computational analysis of the performance and flow characteristics of a centrifugal pump with volute handling emulsions and oil–water mixtures at different water cuts modeled as a shear-thinning non-Newtonian fluid. The studied pump consists of a five-bladed backward curved impeller and a volute and has a specific speed of 32 (metric units). The rheological properties of the mixtures studied were measured experimentally under a shear rate ranging from 1 s⁻¹ to 3000 s⁻¹ and were fitted to conventional Cross and Carreau effective viscosity models. Numerical results showed the flow topology in the pump is directly related to the viscosity plateau of the pseudoplastic behavior of emulsions. The viscosity plateau governs pump performance by influencing the loss mechanisms that occur within the pump. The larger the ν_∞, the less recirculation loss the fluid experiences, and conversely, the smaller the value of ν₀, the less friction loss the fluid experiences.

【 授权许可】

Unknown