Affiliations: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, 47048, Germany. E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: Comparison between numerical simulation and experimental results for
unsteady flow field in a radial diffuser pump is presented for the design
operating point. The numerical result is obtained by solving three-dimensional,
unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations by the commercial CFD code
CFX-10 with k – ω based shear stress transport turbulence model.
Two-dimensional PIV measurements are conducted to acquire the experiment
result. The phase-averaged velocity and turbulent kinetic energy fields are
compared in detail between the results by the two methods in the impeller,
diffuser and return channel regions. The qualitative comparison between CFD and
PIV results is quite good in the phase-averaged velocity field. Although the
turbulence level by PIV is higher than that by CFD generally, the main
turbulence features are nearly the same. Furthermore, the blade orientation
effect and other associated unsteady phenomena are also examined, in order to
enhance the understanding on impeller-diffuser interaction in a radial diffuser
pump.