Student Research Paper Conference Vol-2, No-36, July 2015

A Design Tecnique for a High Quantity Axial Flow

Pump Impeller using Voznisenki Mean Camber Line
Design Method
M.Hamza Khan
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Institute of Space Technology
Islamabad, Pakistan
hamzakhanshamsi@yahoo.com

Abstract— Axial Flow Pumps or AFPs have numerous For an idea of the required pump, the specific speed s is
applications in agriculture, sewage treatment, and domestic water required, which is given by [1]:
requirement fulfillment. For preliminary design purposes velocity
triangles are widely employed, but they are inadequate when it √
⁄
(1)
comes to selecting design parameters such as the number of blades
required, the stagger angle, the twist angle and the mean camber For Axial Flow Pumps, the specific speed is of a high value
line of the impeller blade. In this paper a design technique is from 700 to 3000.
explained, which upon employment not only gives the above
mentioned parameters but also caters for the anti-cavitation On obtaining the specific speed from (1), the impeller eye
characteristics of the blade. To elaborate the technique; the velocity C0 can be obtained as [1]:
researchers design problem is presented as an example in which
Voznisenki method design technique is used to design an impeller √ (2)
which is then analyzed through ANSYS CFX software for
verification of agreement with the theoretical design calculations.
B. Selection of hub ratio and calculation of outer and hub
Keywords—Axial Flow Pumps; Camberline Design; Turbo diameter
machines
In 1951, the French engineer A. Cordier made a relation
I. INTRODUCTION between the specific speed and hub ratio of high efficiency
Axial Flow Pumps are those, in which the radial direction pumps. These results were graphically charted and are termed
of the flow does not change. They have numerous applications as Cordier Diagram [2], which can be viewed in Fig.1. Using
in agriculture, sewage treatment, urban and rural water supply the diagram a value for hub ratio ̅ can be obtained.
and etc. Using circulation, in 1966, Prof. Voznisenki of the The blade tip diameter or the outer diameter D0 can be
Moscow Institute of Power, Russia devised a method for blade calculated as [3]:
profile design by treating the mean camber line of the profile as
circular arcs for which the radii are to be calculated [1]. The
√ ̅̅̅̅ (3)
velocity triangle approach has been a popular tool for
turbomachine design for the last two centuries. By using these
Now the hub diameter can simply be obtained by
two design tools a preliminary pump can be designed.
multiplying D0 with ̅ .
In this paper a non-trial and error design technique is ̅
developed which utilizes both the Voznisenki Mean Camber (4)
Line blade profile design approach and velocity triangles. With
the input of flow rate, head requirement and the blade velocity;
the blade design parameters: solidity, tip radius, hub radius, C. Calculation of Unit Head and Unit Flow Rate
twist angle, stagger angle and blade profile camber line can be The unit head KH and unit flow rate KQ can be calculated as
determined. [1]:
II. PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN (5)
A. Pump Design Requirements
(6)
Suppose that a pump is to be designed for the following
specified requirements 1) Total Head H 2) Flow Rate / Using these two parameters the hydraulic efficiency of
Quantity Q 3) Blade Speed U. the pump can be estimated using the universal performance
charts created by Prof. Staritzky [5] in Fig. 2.

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 A Design Technique for a High Quantity Axial Flow Pump Impeller using Voznisenki Mean Camber Line Design Method

(7)

E. Selection of Vane/Blade Solidity

After selecting the streamlines the blade solidity of the
Fig. 1: Cordier Diagram blade can be selected for each respective streamline by the
following steps involving velocity triangle calculations:
 Calculate the blade speed U by:
(8)
Fig. 2: Staritzky Diagram for unit head as a function of unit quantity,
hydraulic efficiency and specific speed
 By velocity triangle calculation the relative flow inlet
angle is calculated as:
D. Streamline Selection
(9)
For constant energy transfer over the entire blade span the
blade must twist with increasing radius or blade span. To  The outlet tangential component of the absolute flow
incorporate this twist automatically in the blade design velocity is calculated by a simple derivation of the
calculations are done for different streamlines with increasing Euler’s turbo machinery equation:
distance from the hub. As per Prof. Voznisenki’s method five
streamlines are selected. The streamlines are termed in a
successive order as rI, rII , rIII, rIV and rV. They are determined
as follows: (10)

 The relative flow outlet angle is then calculated as

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 A Design Technique for a High Quantity Axial Flow Pump Impeller using Voznisenki Mean Camber Line Design Method

F. Impeller Design
To begin the impeller design the numbers of blades
(11)
required are needed for blade pitch calculation. Prof. Stepanoff
has provided a novel way to calculate number of blades
 The difference between the outlet and inlet relative flow
required for different specific speeds. Using the Stepanoff
angles is then calculated as
charts (Fig. 5) the number of blades required Z can be found
(12) out.
 The vane solidity l/t for the streamlines I to IV are The blade pitch t can then be simply calculated as:
selected per the Howell chart (Fig. 3) obtained from
experimental results obtained by the Moscow Institute (13)
of Power. For the streamline closer to the periphery the
solidity is selected from the results (Fig. 4) obtained by
Papir [6]

Fig. 5 Stepanoff Chart

The blade span l is then found out as:

(14)
Fig. 3 Howell Chart for l/t estimation The circulation over the entire blade can be calculated by
an application of the Kutta-Jowkovski Theorem for cascade
blade system [8]:
(15)

For the individual streamline sections it is

Fig. 4 Papir Chart for Periphery Vane Solidity estimation

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 A Design Technique for a High Quantity Axial Flow Pump Impeller using Voznisenki Mean Camber Line Design Method

Fig. 7 ̅̅̅
𝒇 ̅̅̅̅
𝚪𝟏
𝜹𝒎 calculation
Fig. 6 estimation
𝑾∞ 𝒍𝜷

hub to periphery usually about 0.5 millimeters to avoid

(16) cavitation. The normalized thickness ̅̅̅̅̅ is then used
to calculate the mean difference in relative curvature. The
The average tangential component of relative velocity relative curvature f is given by
is calculated as:
(17)
The average relative flow angle is then calculated as:
(18)
∞

The relative flow velocity can then be calculated as

(19)
∞

Then

(20)
∞

From chart explained in Fig. 6 the parameter is

∞
estimated. From these two parameters the curvature can be
calculated.
Using the chart provided in Fig. 7, is calculated , from
here an iterative procedure begins until the sum of and
is equal to . Using the new value of the curvature is
found out using Fig. 6.

The impeller blade thickness is selected as per wind

tunnel test results which usually range from 6 to 4 millimeters.
The value is selected such that there is a uniform variation from

Fig. 7 𝜷 estimation

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 A Design Technique for a High Quantity Axial Flow Pump Impeller using Voznisenki Mean Camber Line Design Method

(21) = 97 mm
= 109 mm

The curvature difference per mean thickness ̅̅̅̅ ̅̅̅̅ is

found out using the chart in Fig. 8. Thus the curvature D. Impeller Design
difference is obtained by the product of the normalized
thickness and the curvature difference per mean thickness. The The results are presented in a tabular form, to save space
next value for the relative curvature f1 is calculated by the sum only the first two streamlines are presented.
of the curvature f and curvature difference ̅̅̅̅.
The impeller curvature is calculated as
(22) Sr.No Parameter I II
Finally the arc radius R for the mean camber line can then
simply calculated as: 1 Radius (mm) 61 73

(23)
2 Impeller eye
The camber line profile achieved can then be dressed with a Velocity 4.6
thick profile after appropriate wind tunnel tests. C (m/sec)
0
3 Tangential 9.2 11.01
III. EXAMPLE Velocity
The researcher’s design problem was to design an axial U (m/sec)
flow pump that can impart 1800 gpm/ 0.136 m3/sec for a 3.66 4 Relative inlet 26.6 22.68
meter head. Flow Angle
(deg)
A. Pump Specifications
The following design specifications were calculated for the 5 Solidity (l/t) 2 1.43
required head and flowrate:
6 2.36 1.97

√
7 Average 6.84 9.04
⁄ Tangential
Relative
Velocity (m/s)
√ = 4.6 m/sec

̅ = 0.5 (Cordier Diagram) 8 Stagger Angle 35.34 28.21

(deg)

√ ̅̅̅̅ = 0.226 m

9 Average 8.4 10.26

̅ = 0.113 m Relative
Velocity(m/s)

B. Flow Coefficients
10 Chapligin’s 0.280 0.268
Postulate
= 0.125

= 0.493 11 1.27 1.82

∞

12 Curvature 0.223/ 0.150/

C. Streamline Selection (rad/deg) 13.12 8.6

= 61 mm 13 1.67 0.666

= 73 mm 14 + 37.01 28.88

= 85 mm

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A Design Technique for a High Quantity Axial Flow Pump Impeller using Voznisenki Mean Camber Line Design Method

15 1.24 1.78 IV. CONCLUSION

∞
A non trial-and-error method for designing an impeller
16 Curvature 0.229 0.150
(rad/deg)
blade for an axial flow pump is presented. The method utilizes
the velocity triangle design approach and the Voznisenki mean
camber line design technique. Using the head and flow rate
17 Blade 6 5.5
Thickness(mm)
required by the pump, an impeller blade can be designed by
calculating the blade design parameters: solidity, tip radius,
18 Normalized 0.0313 0.0335 hub radius, twist angle, stagger angle and blade profile camber
Thickness line. As seen from the example the CFD results are in
̅̅̅̅̅ agreement with theoretical design calculations, thus proving
19 Relative 0.0577 0.038 that the Voznisenki Method is an excellent choice for the
Curvature preliminary impeller desigm.
V. REFERENCES
20 ̅̅̅̅ ̅̅̅̅ 0.28 0.17
[1] Voznisenski, I.N. (1952). Life, action and selection of the work in the
21 ̅̅̅̅ 0.0087 0.005695 area of Hydraulic Machine development and automatic regulation.
7 Moscow Pub. House.
22 ̅̅̅̅ 0.0664 0.043695 [2] A Valan Arasu (2012). Turbo Machines (2nd ed.). Vikas Publishing
7 House. p. 342.
23 15.14 9.98 [3] Rama S.R. Gorla, Aijaz A. Khan (2003). Turbomachinery Design and
Theory (illustrated ed.). CRC Press. p. 59.
24 192 288 [4] Merle C. Potter, David C. Wiggert, and Bassem H. Ramadan (2011).
Mechanics of Fluids (4th ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 609.
[5] S M Yahya (2005). Turbines Compressors and Fans (3 ed.). Tata
McGraw-Hill Education
[6] Abromavich, S.F. (1950). Application of N.E Joukovski’s method and
Research on flow over cascade of profiles with finite thickness
[7] Joukovski, N.E. (1960) Calculation of flow over cascades of
Turbomachine, Moscow Publishing House.
[8] Papir, A.N. (1965). Axial flow Blades for ships (Fundamental theory
andcalculation – Ship Building Publication, Leningrad
[9] Srinivasan, K.M. (1966). Comparative Analysis of Design of Axial Flow
Pumps. Ph.D.Thesis Deptt. of Hydraulic Machines, Leningrad
Polytechnic, Leningrad USSR
[10] Staritski, V.G (1955). Calculation of Interaction between Cascades of
Impeller blades and diffuser blades in Axial flow Machines

Fig.8 The designed impeller

Fig.9 ANSYS-CFX CFD results for the

impeller designed by Voznisenki Method