Energies 2014, 7(2), 1050-1065; doi:10.3390/en7021050
Influence of Prewhirl Regulation by Inlet Guide Vanes on Cavitation Performance of a Centrifugal Pump
1
State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
2
Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 30 November 2013 / Revised: 17 January 2014 / Accepted: 10 February 2014 / Published: 24 February 2014
Abstract
The influence of prewhirl regulation by inlet guide vanes (IGVs) on a centrifugal pump performance is investigated experimentally and numerically. The experimental results show that IGVs can obviously change the head and increase the efficiency of the tested centrifugal pump over a wide range of flow rates. Although the cavitation performance is degraded, the variation of the cavitation critical point is less than 0.5 m. Movement of the computed three-dimensional streamlines in suction pipe and impeller are analyzed in order to reveal the mechanism how the IGVs realize the prewhirl regulation. The calculated results show that the influence of IGVs on the cavitation performance of centrifugal pump is limited by a maximum total pressure drop of 1777 Pa, about 7.6% of the total pressure at the suction pipe inlet for a prewhirl angle of 24°. View Full-TextKeywords:
centrifugal pump; IGVs; prewhirl regulation; performance; cavitation
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Tan, L.; Zhu, B.; Cao, S.; Wang, Y.; Wang, B. Influence of Prewhirl Regulation by Inlet Guide Vanes on Cavitation Performance of a Centrifugal Pump. Energies 2014, 7, 1050-1065.
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