Numerical Analysis of Centrifugal Impeller for Different Viscous Liquids

Abstract

Oil and gas industry pumps viscous fluids and investigation of flow physics is important to understand the machine behavior to deliver such fluids. 3D numerical flow simulation and analysis for different viscous fluids at different rotational speeds of a centrifugal impeller have been reported in this paper. Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations were solved and the performance analysis was made. Standard two equation k-ε model was used for the turbulence closure of steady incompressible flow. An inlet recirculation and reverse flow in impeller passage was observed at low impeller speeds. It was also found that the higher viscosity fluids have higher recirculation which hinders the impeller performance.