An experimental study on cavitation erosion-corrosion performance of ANSI 1020 and ANSI 4135 steel

Leqin Wang,Ning Qiu,Dieter-Heinz Hellmann,Xiaowen Zhu 대한기계학회 2016 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.30 No.2

Cavitation erosion is quite complex, containing corrosion-erosion interaction effect. High temperature oxidization may be aroused after bubble collapse, accompanied by hot gas contacting with the pump component surface. The analysis of the erosion pits can be an effective way to know the mechanism of cavitation erosion. In present paper, the cavitation erosion resistance of carbon steel (ANSI 1020) and alloy steel (ANSI 4135) were tested in an ultrasonic vibration apparatus. By using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope and three dimensional laser microscope, the chemical composition around erosion pits and the oxidation film structure were analyzed. By using metallographic microscope and scanning electronic microscope, the metallographic structure of specimens (e.g., carbon steel and alloy steel), the nano structured iron oxide and corresponding influence on specimen’s anti-erosion performance were discussed. Based on the comparison between the different tests performed in distilled water and tap water respectively, results can be obtained that erosion rate of carbon steel and alloy steel varies with the component of water which had close correlation to the oxidation effect. Erosion rate of alloy steel 4135 was much lower in distilled water compared to tap water while the difference of carbon steel 1020 was not that large. The remarkable different responses of these two materials had close relationship with oxidation effect. The oxidation effect transferred the original structure of alloy steel surface which had high anti-erosion capability, into newly generated iron oxide structure, which was preferentially to be attacked. The pumping of slightly corrosive fluids frequently leads to erosion-corrosion damage on impellers, and corrosion can further amplify the erosion process.

Experimental study on hydrodynamic performance of a cavitating centrifugal pump during transient operation

Dazhuan Wu,Leqin Wang,Zongrui Hao,Zhifeng Li,Zhiren Bao 대한기계학회 2010 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.24 No.2

An experimental study has been carried out in order to analyze the cavitation of a centrifugal pump and its effect on transient hydrodynamic performance during transient operation. The transient characteristics of the centrifugal pump were tested under various suction pressure and starting conditions. In transient operation of continuous starting and stopping process, instantaneous rotational speed, head,flow rate and suction pressure of the pump were measured. The effect of cavitation on transient performance of the centrifugal pump during transient operation was analyzed, and then the effects of starting acceleration rate and suction pressure of pump on cavitation were presented. Results showed that the cavitation would be delayed during rapid starting period. However, in the condition of low suction pressure and high rotational speed, pump cavitation is inescapable even if the starting period is less than a second. After the serious transient cavitation occurred, the transient performance of centrifugal pump would decline obviously, and the instantaneous head of pump would fluctuate.

Fluid-structure interaction analysis of annular seals and rotor systems in multi-stage pumps

Qinglei Jiang,Lulu Zhai,Leqin Wang,Dazhuan Wu 대한기계학회 2013 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.27 No.7

Annular seals play an important role in determining the vibrational behavior of rotors in multi-stage pumps. To determine the critical speeds and unbalanced responses of rotor systems which consider annular seals, a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method was developed,and the numerical method was verified by experiments conducted on a model rotor. In a typical FSI process, rotor systems are modeled based on a node-element method, and the motion equations are expressed in a type of matrix. To consider the influence of annular seals,dynamic coefficients of annular seals were introduced into the motion equations through matrix transformation. The test results of the model rotor showed good agreement with the calculated results. Based on the FSI method proposed here, the governing equations of annular seals were solved in two different ways. The results showed that the Childs method is more accurate in predicting a rotor’s critical speed. The critical speeds of the model rotor were calculated at different clearance sizes and length/diameter ratios. Tilting coefficients of long seals were added to the dynamic coefficients to consider the influence of tilting. The critical speeds reached their maximum value when the L/D ratio was around 1.25, and tilting enhanced the rotor’s stability when long annular seals were located in either end of the shaft.

A new transient CFD method for determining the dynamic coefficients of liquid annular seals

Dazhuan Wu,Xinkuo Jiang,Shiyang Li,Leqin Wang 대한기계학회 2016 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.30 No.8

Currently, the dynamic characteristics of annular seals are numerically investigated mainly by solving the bulk flow equations using perturbation method, or by simulating the perturbed flow field of annular seal using CFD method. The adopted disturbance way is generally the circular whirling motion of rotor around seal centre with constant speed. Relative to the transient CFD simulation, the quasisteady CFD simulation introducing Moving reference frame (MRF) has been widely used by researchers. Both the dynamic mesh problem and the time-consuming problem suppress the use of transient CFD simulation in annular seal research. In the paper, a new transient CFD method based on rotor’s variable-speed whirl is presented to improve the time-consuming problem and all the (total 20) dynamic coefficients of concentric liquid seal can be obtained by only two transient CFD simulations, one for the variable-speed cylindrical whirl and the other for the variable-speed conical whirl. The results are compared with those from the experiment, the quasi-steady CFD method and the traditional transient CFD method based on constant-speed whirl. The comparisons show that the new transient method can keep the good accuracy of traditional transient method and meantime largely save the computational time.

Experimental and numerical study of transient flow in a centrifugal pump during startup

Zhifeng Li,Peng Wu,Dazhuan Wu,Leqin Wang 대한기계학회 2011 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.25 No.3

Transient characteristics and flows in a centrifugal pump during its starting period were experimentally and numerically investigated. The two-dimensional particle image velocimetry technique was used to capture transient flow evolutions in the pump’s diffuser. A new dynamic slip region method that combines the dynamic mesh method with the non-conformal grid boundaries is proposed to resolve the transient flows caused by the started impeller. Numerical self-coupling was realized by establishing a circulation pipe system along with the pump model equivalent to the experimental pump system. Numerical and experimental results agree well in both explicit characteristics and internal transient flow structures, confirming the validity of the proposed method. Analysis of the instantaneous flow in the impellers indicates that for the early stage of the startup, the transient vortex evolution between blades is the main reason for the transient head coefficient being lower than the steady state value. The reversed flow at the blade inlet is a less important reason for this effect. In later stages, the weakening of the intensity of the spatial vortex visible on S_2m and the main flow stream are the main reasons for the explicit performance slowly rebounding to the steady value.

Three-dimensional flow simulation of transient power interruption process of a prototype pump-turbine at pump mode

Jintao Liu,Shuhong Liu,Yuekun Sun,Lei Jiao,Yulin Wu,Leqin Wang 대한기계학회 2013 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.27 No.5

The transient power failure process of a prototype pump-turbine was studied numerically by three-dimensional (3-D) simulations. Fluid coupling and dynamic mesh (DM) method were used to calculate the rotational speed of the runner. Simulations were performed based on turbulence model. Specific transient characteristics, such as the flow rate, head, rotational speed, were analyzed. The pumpturbine had a minimum head and a maximum axial force when the flow rate was 0 during the transient process. Pressure fluctuations increased when the pump-turbine ran at pump braking mode. Reverse flow in the casing as well as stall phenomenon in the runner had a great effect on the change of head. Pressure in the runner was greatly reduced when the pump-turbine ran at pump braking mode. The computational method could be used to interpret the abnormal phenomenon by the analysis of flow mechanism during a transient process.

Study on numerical methods for transient flow induced by speed-changing impeller of fluid machinery

Dazhuan Wu,Tao Chen,Youbo Sun,Wentao Cheng,Leqin Wang 대한기계학회 2013 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.27 No.6

In order to establish a reliable numerical method for solving the transient rotating flow induced by a speed-changing impeller, two numerical methods based on finite volume method (FVM) were presented and analyzed in this study. Two-dimensional numerical simulations of incompressible transient unsteady flow induced by an impeller during starting process were carried out respectively by using DM and DSR methods. The accuracy and adaptability of the two methods were evaluated by comprehensively comparing the calculation results. Moreover, an intensive study on the application of DSR method was conducted subsequently. The results showed that transient flow structure evolution and transient characteristics of the starting impeller are obviously affected by the starting process. The transient flow can be captured by both two methods, and the DSR method shows a higher computational efficiency. As an application example, the starting process of a mixed-flow pump was simulated by using DSR method. The calculation results were analyzed by comparing with the experiment data.