Effect of blade thickness on hydraulic performance of a mixed-flow pump impeller

Abstract

This paper presents the effect of blade thickness on the hydraulic performance of a mixed-flow pump impeller. For the numerical analysis, three-dimensional steady-state Reynolds -averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are discretized using the finite volume method with the shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The equations were solved using hexahedral grids to analyze the internal flow in the mixed-flow pump impeller. The blockage concept is employed to express the quantitative amount by the variation in the blade thickness. The effects of hydraulic performance on the blockage amount are systematically analyzed with the variation in the best efficiency point (BEP) in the performance curve. The detailed flow characteristics with the blockage effect are analyzed and discussed.