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GUIDE VANES INFERENCE ON HYDRAULIC CHARACTERISTICS OF TUBULAR

PUMP

Jin Yan Liu Chao

College of Hydraulic Science and Engineering, Hydrodynamic Engineering Laboratory
Yangzhou University Yangzhou University, China
Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China Corresponding Author
Takaharu Tanaka
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Kobe University, Japan)

losses. The recommended alternative of guide vane is

ABSTRACT
The blade number of pump guide vane is an important
factor that affects hydraulic characteristics of the pumping
system, since the diffusion angle after the impeller is larger
than as usual. It is necessary to pay more attention for its
calculation and analysis. By CFD method the numeric
simulation was conducted to a bulb tubular pump with
different guide vane blades and the three dimensional flow
fields within whole passage of pumping system was obtained.
There are five different number of guide vane blades (4 blades,
5 blades, 7 blades, 8 blades and improved 5 blades) selected
for the simulation and performance prediction. The influences
of the guide vanes numbers on the system performance are
analyzed. The hydraulic losses increases with the increase of
the number of guide vane blades while the efficiency of
pumping system is not fully comply with this relationship.
The system efficiency for which 5 guide vanes were adopted
is higher than others with different number of guide vane
blades; also the velocity and the pressure distribution of flow
fields are more uniform. The system efficiency for which 5
improved guide vanes is the highest with lowest hydraulic
presented for the pump impeller.
Key words: tubular pump; guide vane; pump impeller;
numerical simulation
INTRODUCTION
Guide vane is a major energy recovery component of
pump system, So far, many scholars have been in-depth study
of guide vane design. Back in the eighties of last century, Han
Guoqi[1] proposed a geometry parameter method with guide
vane design for the traditional design disadvantages; Qiu
Baoyun[2-3] presented no water circulation in the guide vane
design through computational analysis and experimental study
for guide blade discharge circulation of axial flow pump;
Tang fangping[4-5] thought that energy recovery of guide
vane related to the specific speed by analysis; A.Thakker[6]
presents the experimental results of effect of guide vane shape
on performance of an impulse turbine for wave energy
conversion, Two types of guide vanes are considered in the
present study: two-dimensional (2D) guide vanes and
three-dimensional (3D) guide vanes, it was proved that the
efficiency of impulse turbine has been improved for 4.5%

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 points due to 3D guide vanes. T.Setoguchi[7] found that the PS Surface static pressure
running and starting characteristics of the Wells turbine with
TUBULAR PUMP SYSTEM
3D guide vanes are superior to those with 2D guide vanes.
Tubular pumps will be applied in the first stage of The type of pump system is postposition bulb tubular
South-to-North Water Diversion East Route Project, pump, which includes inlet passage, impeller, guide vane and
particularly suitable for ultra-low head pump stations[8]. With outlet passage. The geometry model is shown in the Fig.1.
the gradual deepening of tubular pump research, how to
further improve the efficiency of tubular pump devices
become a hot topic. In the flow components which affect the
hydraulic performance of tubular pump, the guide vane is
particularly prominent, how to optimize the guide vane,
choose a reasonable guide vane angle and the number of guide Fig.1 Tubular pump model
vane blades, and other issues remains to be elucidated. So far,
NUMERICAL CALCULATION
most researches on the guide vane were calculating the
hydraulic loss through the external characteristics test, or Governing Equation and Turbulent model
measuring the internal flow field by flow measurement In this paper, the three dimensional Reynolds-averaged
technology[9], but due to the complex structure of guide vane, Navier-Stokes equations are solved by this code. The transport
it is difficult to get a comprehensive test data. equations are discretized using a conservative finite volume
With development of computer technology and method. The turbulence effects are modeled by the RNG k-ε
computational fluid dynamics, using CFD technology to turbulence model, turbulence kinetic energy, k, and its rate of
simulate the internal flow of pumps has become a trend. It can dissipation, ε, are obtained from the following transport
be obtained the velocity, pressure and other detailed equations:
information through numerical simulation which provides an 
 ( k )  ( ku i )  k  （1）
effective tool for the tubular pump system with complex    k  eff   G k  
t x i x j  x j 
structure. In this paper, the internal and external
characteristics of bulb tubular pump system are analyzed 
(  )  ( u i )    *  2 （2）
through the numerical simulation, and the number of guide      eff   C1 Gk  C 2 
t xi x j  x j  k k
vane blades which affects the hydraulic performance of
tubular pump is studied. Combining with the numerical k2
Where, eff    t ，  t  Cu Cu  0.0845 ,
simulation and experimental results, it indicates the both 
results are closed near the high efficiency point, the numerical  k     1.39 ,  1    0  ，
C1*  C1 
1   3
simulation result can provide evidences for the optimization

  2E ij  E ij 1 2
design of guide vane. ， k ，
C1  1.42 , C2  1.68

NOMENCLATURE
1  u u j   0  4.377 ,   0.012
ρ Density of water E ij   i 
2  x j xi 
g Gravity
p Static pressure Computational Domain and Grid Generation
Q Discharge For these studies a commercial software package, Fluent
η Efficiency was used. The computational domain for the numerical
u Velocity of fluid simulation is from the inlet to outlet which includes inlet
△h Hydraulic loss passage, impeller, guide vane, bulb unit and outlet passage
P0 out Total pressure of guide vane outlet (shown in Fig.1).
The main research contents of this paper is that the
P0 in Total Pressure of guide vane inlet
inference of guide vane blades number on the pump system

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 performance, so a tubular pump matching several guide vane
units with different blade number (shown in Fig.2) are
simulated. The blade number of impeller is 3, to ensure the
guide vane impeller blade number with the number of
mutually prime, there are five different number of guide vane
blades (4 blades, 5 blades, 7 blades, 8 blades and improved 5
blades) selected for the simulation and performance prediction.
In these schemes, the improved 5 blades of guide vane means
that shorten one-third in front of guide vane blade base on the
5 blade scheme, which increase the distance between the
impeller outlet and guide vane inlet. The unstructured grids
for computational domain are generated by GAMBIT, and
mesh refinement in the impeller and guide vane for improving
the accuracy of calculation.
(a) 4 blades (b) 5 blades
(c) 7 blades (d) 8 blades
(f) Improved 5 blades
Fig. 2 Different guide vane units
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Boundary conditions
For boundary conditions, the mass flow is given at the
inlet, and outflow condition is defined at the outlet. No slip
boundary conditions and wall functions are used for the solid
walls. The interface between the impeller and guide vane is
used multiple reference frames (MRF) method to solution,
which can ensure the continuity of the interface.
COMPUTATIONAL RESULTS
Outlet section of guide vane
Using the CFD method to simulated the internal flow
of tubular pump, and the static pressure contours in guide
vane outlet section at the best efficiency point (BEP) of each
scheme are shown in Fig.3.
Seen from the figures, the static pressure distribution
uniformity at guide vane outlet section became worse when
the blade number of guide vane is lager than 5 and the
particle high pressure is obvious. When the blade number
is 5, the overall uniformity is better than other schemes
although it also exist part low pressure area. The pressure
distribution still remains a relatively good state after
making the appropriate changes to 5 blades. When the
blade number of guide vane is less than 5, the static
pressure distribution uniformity is also not very well,
which appears obvious low pressure area. So it can inferred
there exists the optimal impeller-guide vane blade match
for the established impeller.
(a) 4 blades (b) 5 blades
 (c) 7 blades (d) 8 blades

(d) 8 blades

(f) Improved 5 blades

(f) Improved 5 blades

Fig.3 Static pressure contours in outlet section of guide vane Fig.4 Velocity and static pressure distribution in vertical plane
at BEP at BEP
Velocity and pressure distribution in tubular pump Hydraulic loss
Velocity and static pressure distribution in vertical plane Figure 5 is curve of hydraulic loss in guide vane units
at BEP of each scheme are shown in Fig.4. changing with the discharge (where h0 and Q0 are the
Seen from the inlet side, the distribution of the flow hydraulic loss and discharge corresponding to the BEP
field has nothing to do with the structure of guide vanes, respectively). Using the integral function of computational
which indicating the guide vane not affects the upstream software, the total pressure of guide vane inlet and outlet
flow, only impacts the flow after the guide vanes. Compare are obtained. The hydraulic loss of passage is calculated in
the flow field after the bulb in different schemes, the equation.
pressure distribution are relatively uniform, gradually P P
h  0out  0in （3）
increased with the flow, while seen from the velocity g g
streamline, in the scheme with 4 blades, the velocity 1
u
2
Where, P0  PS 
moved downwards in the outlet passage. In the scheme 2
with 5 blades, the flow streamline is relatively smooth, but
has slightly offset upward trend. In the schemes with 7
blades and 8 blades, the deviation phenomenon of flow is
obvious, especially the 8 blades condition, it appears the
vortex after the manhole. In the scheme with improved 5
blades, the flow near the bulb tail is not very stable.

(a) 4 blades

Fig.5 Hydraulic loss curve of guide vane units

(b) 5 blades As shown in the hydraulic loss curve of different
schemes, there is a certain relationship between the
hydraulic loss and blade number of guide vane. If not
consider the improvement scheme, the trend is basically
(c) 7 blades the hydraulic loss increasing with the number of guide
vane blades increasing in addition to several points do not

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 consist with the law. The hydraulic loss of improved 5
blades scheme is minimum in 5 schemes.
External characteristics of pump system
The External characteristics data of pump system are
obtained through numerical simulation (shown in Fig.6,
where H0 and η0 are the lift head and efficiency
corresponding to the BEP respectively). Seen from the
head-discharge curve, the head differences between each
scheme are relatively large in low discharge condition. The
head of 4 blades, 7 blades and 8 blades schemes are
obviously lower than the scheme with 5 blades. But on the
condition of optimal and large discharge, the head is
basically the same and no significant change of different
schemes. Compare the Efficiency-discharge curves, it can
be found that the system efficiency of 5 blades scheme is
higher than the other schemes, especially the improved 5
blades scheme.
(a) H-Q curve
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(b) η-Q curve
Fig.6 External performance curve of tubular pump
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the three dimensional Reynolds-averaged
Navier-Stokes equations, the RNG k-ε turbulence model
is applied to simulate the internal flow field of tubular
pump using 5 schemes with different blade number of
guide vane, compare the internal and external
characteristics of different schemes, and analyze the
inference of blade number on the performance of tubular
pump. The results show that: the number of blades have a
direct affect on the flow field and hydraulic loss, which
will bring obvious impact on the entire system. For the
impeller with 3 blades matching 4 blades, 5 blades, 7
blades and 8 blades of guide vane, the calculation results
show the hydraulic loss of guide vane is essentially
increased with the number of blades, but the efficiency the
pump system is not very consist with this law. The
efficiency of 5 blades scheme is higher, the velocity and
the pressure distribution of internal flow field are more
uniform. The hydraulic loss of improved 5 blades scheme
is minimum and the efficiency is high than the other 5
schemes. Whether from the flow field distribution of guide
vane outlet section, or from the flow field distribution in
outlet passage, the 5 blades of the guide vane is the best
match with the 3 blades impeller, and the match effect of
improved 5 blades is better.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by China Nature Science Funds
(No.50779060), ‘Eleven Fifth’ Project of Science and
Technology Support (No. 2006BAB04A03), Open Fund of
Province Laboratory (No.k08019)
Support for construction/assembly of the facility was also
provided by JSS Key Lab of Hydrodynamic Engineering.
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