Numerical simulation of the sound field of a five-stage centrifugal pump with different turbulence models

Abstract

To study the influence of the turbulence model on the sound field of pumps, the standard k-ε, Re-normalization Group (RNG) k-ε and Shear Stress Transfer (SST) k-ω models were employed to simulate flow and sound fields of a five-stage centrifugal pump with a vaned-diffuser. The vibration characteristics of the pump were simulated with the modal response method. A vibration experiment in the pump was carried out to verify the feasibility of the numerical simulation of the hydrodynamic noise in the pump. Results show that in the spectrum of internal and external noise, the peak value appears at axial passing frequency (APF) and its harmonic frequency. Compared with the standard k-ε model, the RNG k-ε and SST k-ω models show good consistence with the noise characteristics of experimental results, indicating the characteristic frequency and revealing the approximate behavior of the sound field in the pump. In general, the simulation of the sound field based on the RNG k-ε model is most appropriate for the multistage centrifugal pump with a vaned-diffuser.