Investigation of a centrifugal pump for energy loss due to clearance thickness while pumping different viscosity oils

The clearance between the stationary volute and rotating impeller of a centrifugal pump is crucial; however, it affects the internal flow and deteriorates the pump performance. This study performed a flow investigation through a numerical simulation to understand the effect of clearance and pumping fluid viscosity under the design and off-design conditions of a centrifugal pump. Numerical simulations were conducted by solving unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations and validated using experimental results. Five three-dimensional centrifugal pump flow domains were created, by varying the clearance thickness, and simulated with three different fluid properties. Consequently, the numerical simulation results aided in understanding the internal flow pattern and estimating energy loss due to disk friction and leakage through the clearance. It was found that the disk friction and leakage losses, which cause secondary losses in the pump, were highly affected by the fluid properties and clearance thickness. The clearance thickness drastically affected both the volumetric and hydraulic efficiencies to leakage; however, beyond a particular value, it became less significant. Furthermore, the viscous oils caused a high disk friction loss; however, the leakage loss was less affected by the clearance thickness.