Hydraulic performance of a mixed-flow pump: Unsteady inviscid computationsand loss models

The hydraulic performance of an industrial mixed-flow pump is analyzed usin g a three-dimensional potential flow model to compute the unsteady flow thr ough the entire pump configuration. Subsequently, several additional models that use the potential flow results are employed to assess the losses. Com puted head agrees well with experiments in the range 70 percent-130 percent BEP flow rate. Although the boundary layer displacement in the volute is s ubstantial, its effect on global characteristics is negligible. Computation s show that a truly unsteady analysis of the complete impeller and volute i s necessary to compute even global performance characteristics; an analysis of an isolated impeller channel and volute with an averaging procedure at the interface is inadequate.