CHARACTERISTICS OF CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS HANDLING AIR-WATER MIXTURES AND SIZE OF AIR BUBBLES IN PUMP IMPELLERS.

Abstract

Characteristics of centrifugal pumps handling air-water mixtures are analyzed on the basis of a gas-liquid separated flow model, which is generally accepted in the analysis of the data on a two-phase flow in piping systems. And a method for predicting the pump characteristics is presented with use of parameters of friction-loss and shock-loss multipliers. Size of air bubbles flowing through pump impellers was measured. The bubbles in the inlet region of the impellers have an extremely uniform size with fairly small diameters. But in course of flow, the bubble diameter grows gradually due to coalescence of the bubbles.