CFD analysis and test of a fluid machine operating as a pump and turbine

摘要

About twenty years ago, when energy economics started to become a more important issue than previously, several pump manufacturers investigated systematically the feasibility of using existing centrifugal pumps as turbine generators in small hydroelectric power plants or for energy recovery in technical processes. Those investigations were experimental only and resulted in certain empirical relations between pump and turbine performance. There were also a few incomplete attempts to find a theoretical background for these empirical relationships. With today's powerful tool of computational fluid dynamics in addition to tests, it is possible to make a different approach to this problem and to make reliable performance predictions for fluid machines operating in both pumping and turbine modes.