EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL EVALUATION AND DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF CENTRIFUGAL PUMP IMPELLER PARAMETERS THROUGH RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

摘要

This research work discusses a research methodology aimed to renovate the design approach of a centrifugal pump for performance enhancement through Response Surface Methodology concept and also focused on enhancing the efficiency of a centrifugal pump and to produce energy efficient pump for the requirement of Bureau of Energy Efficiency. This paper seeks to find optimum impeller geometries that affect the efficiency as well as performance characteristics of a centrifugal pump impeller. An impeller blade profile was developed by tangent circular arc method and a 3D model was generated. Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis was done to predict the performance characteristic of the impeller which is an important component of a centrifugal pump. For numerical simulation, the standard k-ε turbulence model for steady state condition was performed with the unstructured grid.CFD results are validated with experimental performance values. Design of experiments was employed based on five factors and five levels of central composite rotatable design with full replication techniques. Second order mathematical models were formulated to articulate the relationship between the impeller parameters and its responses. The identified input parameters and mathematical models were validated statistically. Optimized impeller parameters were found by RSM optimizer and an impeller was fabricated for the optimized parameters. The experimental evaluation was conducted on the optimized impeller and the results are discussed. The newly designed centrifugal pump has been tested in the Scientific and Industrial Testing and Research Centre located in Coimbatore.