Influences of Impeller Splitter Blades on the Performance of a Centrifugal Pump with Viscous Fluids

抄録

In the present study, influences of impeller splitter blades on the performance of a centrifugal pump when handling viscous fluids have been investigated numerically and experimentally. In order to approach this aim, various splitter blades have been inserted on the impellers that pump viscous fluids ranging from 1 cSt to 500 cSt and the optimum splitter blade length based on the numerical results were constructed and tested thoroughly. Effects of splitter blades with lengths of 0.3, 0.45, 0.6 and 0.75 times of the main impeller blades were analyzed numerically. Results revealed that splitter blades have significant effect on the performance of a centrifugal pump. In fact, splittered impellers extend the operating region of centrifugal pumps remarkably and also among different surveyed splitter blades the head and efficiency increase by 20% and 3% respectively by using splittered impeller of 0.75L in comparison with the original impeller (without splitter blade). Moreover, the data analyses shows that splittered impellers can be used for pumping viscous fluids in the almost all operating conditions of non-splittered impellers with less viscous working fluid and obtained reasonable performance.