Investigation on the flow-induced noise

propagation mechanism of centrifugal

pump based on flow and sound fields
synergy concept
Cite as: Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0003937
Submitted: 06 February 2020 . Accepted: 09 March 2020 . Published Online: 27 March 2020

Chang Guo (郭畅), and Ming Gao (高明)

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Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0003937 32, 035115

© 2020 Author(s).
 Physics of Fluids ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf

Investigation on the flow-induced noise

propagation mechanism of centrifugal
pump based on flow and sound fields
synergy concept
Cite as: Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937
Submitted: 6 February 2020 • Accepted: 9 March 2020 •
Published Online: 27 March 2020

Chang Guo (郭畅) and Ming Gao (高明)a)

AFFILIATIONS
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China

a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: gm@sdu.edu.cn

ABSTRACT
This paper explores the flow-induced noise propagation mechanism of centrifugal pump from the view of flow and sound field synergy
concept. First, the unsteady synergetic relationship between flow and sound fields is deduced, and the synergy angle is defined to describe
the synergy degree. It is shown that the domain-averaged synergy angle (θave ) changes little with flow time, which implies that the synergy
degree is basically unchanged with flow time. With increasing rotational speed or flow rate, the time-averaged θave (θtave ) in the impeller and
the volute moves far away from 90○ gradually, i.e., the synergy degree increases. Meanwhile, the noise outside the pump increases, and the
variation of both the noise outside the pump and θtave tends to be gradual. The results manifested that the flow-induced noise propagation
mechanism of the centrifugal pump can be well described by the change in synergy degree and the increase in synergy degree can cause the
noise tending to propagate outside. In addition, the impact of the blade outlet angle on the noise propagation characteristics is investigated.
Considering the synergy degree in the impeller and the volute comprehensively, the deviation of θtave from 90○ decreases from 6.48○ to 4.74○
as the angle increases from 15○ to 35○ , i.e., θtave tends to approach 90○ , and the synergy degree decreases gradually, indicating that increasing
the blade outlet angle can weaken the tendency of noise propagating outside by decreasing the synergy degree. These conclusions can guide
noise control research and engineering design.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0003937., s

I. INTRODUCTION complex flow phenomena, such as rotor–stator interaction,6,7 turbu-

With noise pollution becoming more prominent, noise analy-
sis in different fields has raised interest.1–3 As a major fluid trans-
portation device, centrifugal pumps have been gradually applied in
many fields.4 Because of the high-speed rotating performance of
impellers and the complexity of fluid flow, a lot of noise is generated,
which affects human health and the work environment.5 Therefore,
the flow-induced noise of centrifugal pumps has attracted much
attention.
Considerable research has been conducted from the views of
flow-induced noise generation, distribution, and changing char-
acteristics, and valuable conclusions have been obtained. Flow-
induced noise generation is associated with various unsteady and
lence,8,9 cavitation,10,11 and water hammer,12,13 and the rotor–stator
interaction is the main cause of centrifugal pump noise. Under the
influence of rotor–stator interaction, the noise reaches peak at char-
acteristic frequencies in the low-frequency range. The generation of
flow-induced noise is always accompanied by specific distribution
characteristics of the sound field, and the distribution characteris-
tics of the sound pressure level (SPL) at different orders of blade-
passing frequency (f b ) and the total sound pressure level (TSPL)
have been widely studied.14–17 Currently, the method combining
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with acoustic theory18–20 and
acoustic simulation approach21–23 has been widely used to ana-
lyze the noise distribution characteristics. It has been concluded
that, under the influence of complex flow characteristics inside

Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937 32, 035115-1

Published under license by AIP Publishing
 Physics of Fluids ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf

centrifugal pumps, dipole directivity characteristics in the circum- as follows:

ferential direction of flow-induced noise were presented. To meet ∂T ∂T ∂ ∂T
different demands, centrifugal pumps need to operate under differ- ρcp (ux + uy )= (k ), (1)
∂x ∂y ∂y ∂y
ent conditions, and the noise changes accordingly. Generally, with
increasing rotational speed, the flow-induced noise inside pumps ∂ ∂T
increases. Under various flow rates, the noise reaches a minimum −q= (k ). (2)
∂y ∂y
at optimum efficiency condition and increases gradually when the
operating condition deviates from the optimum efficiency condi- The right-side item of Eq. (1) represents the heat flux between
tion. In addition, scholars have paid much attention to noise opti- fluid and walls. The convection term of Eq. (1) can be written as the
mization design by reducing the unsteady flow fluctuation intensity. dot product form
For example, noise optimization can be realized by changing the
blade outlet angle,24 impeller outlet width,25 impeller-tongue gap,26 ∂T ∂T
ux + uy = u ⋅ ∇T = ∣u∣∣∇T∣cos β, (3)
or different structure combinations27 and taking the hydraulic per- ∂x ∂y
formance into consideration. After several years of development,
where β indicates the synergy angle between the velocity vector and
considerable achievements have been realized, which have laid a
temperature gradient. The convective heat transfer enhancement
foundation for pump optimization design.
can be realized by increasing the synergy degree.
Actually, the flow-induced noise of centrifugal pumps not only
propagates inside pumps, namely, the internal flow noise, but also
B. Synergy analysis between flow and sound fields
propagates toward the external environment, namely, the external
radiation noise. Previous research mainly focused on the distribu- The contribution of the fluid viscosity to noise is small.34
tion and changing characteristics of the two kinds of noise. How- Without considering the influence of fluid viscosity, the continuity,
ever, a few research studies discussed the propagation character- momentum, and state equations are shown as follows:
istics of flow-induced noise. The exploration on the propagation
∂ρ
characteristics of noise can extend the evaluation criterion of pump = −∇ ⋅ (ρu), (4)
performance and guide the noise reduction research. ∂t
The field synergy principle was proposed by Guo et al.28 and
was applied first to convective heat transfer enhancement. Subse- ∂u 1
+ (u ⋅ ∇)u + ∇p = 0, (5)
quently, the principle has also been applied to the analysis of mass ∂t ρ
transfer,29 flow drag reduction,30 flow noise propagation mecha-
nism,31,32 etc. Cao et al.31,32 deduced the steady synergy equation p = p(ρ, en). (6)
between flow and sound fields first and manifested its applicability
on the flow noise propagation analysis in pipelines with air used as Introducing the perturbations here according to the deduction
medium. of sound wave equation,35
In previous works, the simultaneous simulation method for
flow and sound fields based on Powell vortex sound theory was ρ = ρ0 + ρs , (7)
proposed, and the flow-induced noise generation and distribution u = u0 + us , (8)
characteristics were analyzed.24,33 By using the simulation method,
the flow-induced noise propagation mechanism of the centrifugal p = p0 + ps , (9)
pump is analyzed in the current study from the view of flow and
sound field synergy concept. First, the unsteady synergetic relation- where the subscript s represents the perturbation. The density per-
ship between flow and sound fields is deduced with water used as a turbation ρs is a measure of the sound amplitude.36 Taking into
medium. Then, the synergy degree between flow and sound fields of account the fact that ρ0 and p0 are constant, u0 is equal to 0.35
a centrifugal pump is analyzed and compared with the experimental Substituting Eqs. (7)–(9) into Eqs. (4) and (5), we can get
measurement results to verify the feasibility of the synergy analy- ∂ρs
sis on the analysis of flow-induced noise propagation mechanism. + u ⋅ ∇ρs + ρ0 ∇ ⋅ u = 0, (10)
∂t
Additionally, the impact of the blade outlet angle on the propaga-
tion mechanism of flow-induced noise is discussed, which can guide ∂u
ρ0 + ρ0 (u ⋅ ∇)u + ∇p = 0. (11)
future noise control research and optimization design of centrifugal ∂t
pumps. According to Eq. (6), the pressure change is associated with the
density change and the entropy change. In the sound propagation
process, the time of medium compression and expansion is much
II. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS shorter than that of heat conduction, the medium has no time to
A. Field synergy principle exchange heat with the adjacent part; therefore, the sound propa-
gation process is assumed to be isentropic.31 Under the isentropic
According to the field synergy principle, the convective heat condition, the pressure change is only associated with the density
transfer process can be considered as the conductive heat transfer change, i.e.,
process with the heat source.28 The energy equations of 2-D convec-
tive heat transfer and 1-D heat conduction are written, respectively, ∇ps ≈ c02 ∇ρs , (12)

Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937 32, 035115-2

Published under license by AIP Publishing
 Physics of Fluids
where c0 is the sound speed. ps represents the sound pressure per-
turbation corresponding to the density perturbation and is also a
measure of sound amplitude in time domain. Substituting Eq. (12)
into Eq. (10),
∂ρs
−u ⋅ ∇ps = c02 ( + ρ0 ∇ ⋅ u). (13)
∂t
The left-side item of Eq. (13) can be written as
−u ⋅ ∇ps = ∣−u∣∣∇ps ∣cos θ, (14)
−u ⋅ ∇ps
θ = arccos , (15)
∣−u∣∣∇ps ∣
where θ represents the synergy angle between the velocity vector and
sound pressure perturbation gradient, which reflects the synergetic
relationship between flow and sound fields. ∂ts and ∇ ⋅ u represent
∂ρ
the change in density perturbation with flow time and the volume
expansion rate of unit volume, respectively, so the right-side items of
Eq. (13) are both related to sound field. −u ⋅ ∇ps is the work done by
the fluid on the walls, that is, sound energy exchange between fluid
and walls.31,32 It can be concluded that with θ far away from 90○ , the
synergy degree increases, indicating that the sound energy exchange
between fluid and walls increases. For centrifugal pumps, with the
increasing of synergy degree, the noise generated by unsteady flow
tends to propagate outside of pumps, i.e., the radiation noise level
would increase.
C. Powell vortex sound theory
Compared with the FW-H equation, the Powell vortex sound
equation is more suitable to calculate the sound pressure pertur-
bation simultaneously with flow field parameters.24 According to
Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937
Published under license by AIP Publishing
ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
Eqs. (4)–(12), the Powell vortex sound equation is written as
1 ∂ 2 ps u2
2 2
− ∇2 ps = ∇ ⋅ (ρ0 (ω × u) + ∇(ρ0 )). (16)
c ∂t 2
The equation consists of time, spatial, and source items. The
sound pressure perturbation is calculated by discretizing and solv-
ing Eq. (16) and combined with flow field parameters to establish the
synergetic relationship between flow and sound fields for the anal-
ysis of flow-induced noise propagation mechanism. The structural
diagram is shown in Fig. 1.
D. Application of synergy analysis between flow
and sound fields
The study by Cao et al.32 is introduced briefly to explain the
feasibility of the synergy analysis on noise propagation mechanism.
The study analyzes the noise propagation characteristics in a simple
expansion chamber muffler, as shown in Fig. 2(a). The domain-
averaged synergy angle and transmission loss are calculated to reveal
the silencing effect under various flow velocity conditions with the
same sound power input. Here, the transmission loss is defined as
TL = Lwi − Lwo , (17)
where TL, Lwi , and Lwo represent the transmission loss, sound power
level at inlet, and sound power level at outlet, respectively. The
greater the transmission loss, the better the silencing effect.
As shown in Fig. 2(b), with increasing velocity, the domain-
averaged synergy angle increases gradually and is close to 90○ ; mean-
while, the transmission loss decreases, i.e., the silencing effect weak-
ens. The results manifest that the synergy analysis can be used
for the analysis of noise propagation characteristics. With decreas-
ing synergy degree between flow and sound fields, the exchange of
sound energy between walls and fluid decreases, which causes the
attenuation of transmission loss.
FIG. 1. The structural diagram for the
flow-induced noise propagation mecha-
nism analysis.
32, 035115-3
 Physics of Fluids ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf

FIG. 3. Physical model.

TABLE I. Model parameters of the centrifugal pump.

Parameter Value
FIG. 2. Noise propagation mechanism analysis in a simple expansion chamber
muffler. (a) Expansion chamber muffler. (b) Variation of transmission loss and Inlet diameter 80 mm
domain-averaged synergy angle with flow velocity.32 Reprinted with permission Outlet diameter 50 mm
from Cao et al., “Investigation on the flow noise propagation mechanism in simple Impeller diameter 250 mm
expansion pipelines based on synergy principle of flow and sound fields,” Energy Blade outlet angle 25○
Procedia 142, 3870–3875 (2017). Copyright 2017 Author(s), licensed under a Blade number 6
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Design head 80 m
Rated rotating speed 2900 rpm
Rated flow rate 50 m3 /h

III. NUMERICAL METHOD

A. Physical model
Figure 3 and Table I show the physical model and the model
parameters of the test pump, respectively. Water is used as the
medium. Fluent is used for the flow and sound field simulation.

B. Flow field solver

Figure 4 presents the mesh independence analysis. To improve
the accuracy while reducing the computational costs, mesh-D is cho-
sen. Figure 5 shows the tetrahedral mesh system. Table II shows the
CFD settings used for flow field simulation.

C. Sound field solver

Table III summarizes the relevant settings used for sound field
simulation. The detailed discretization and solution principles are
discussed in Ref. 24.
The sound pressure perturbation gradient and velocity vector
are calculated simultaneously, and the synergy angle between the
FIG. 4. Mesh independence analysis.
two vectors is calculated. Then, the domain-averaged synergy angle

Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937 32, 035115-4

Published under license by AIP Publishing
 Physics of Fluids ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf

TABLE III. Relative settings used for sound field simulation.

Items Conditions

Inlet and outlet Absorption boundary conditions

Sound pressure perturbations at
Walls
wall boundaries are equal to 0
Discretization principle Cell-centered finite volume method
Solving principle Implicit iteration method
Initial conditions Initial values of sound field are 0

computational domain, respectively. Based on the simulation results

of flow field, the custom program used for synergy angle calculation
is defined and hooked to Fluent to calculate θ and θave at each time
step.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION

FIG. 5. Tetrahedral mesh system.
can be obtained, and it is defined as
−ui ⋅ ∇psi Vi
θave = ∑ arccos
∣−ui ∣∣∇psi ∣ V
where θave , i, V i , and V represent the domain-averaged syn-
ergy angle, mesh number, mesh volume, and total volume of
A. Experimental setup
To validate the accuracy of the simulation method and explore
the noise propagation mechanism, the internal flow noise in the
outlet pipe and the external radiation noise outside the pump are
measured. The experimental diagram is shown in Fig. 6. Table IV
presents the applications and measurement parameters of appara-
tus. Due to the particularity of the centrifugal pump installation, the
radiation noise on a hemispherical surface is measured. Figure 7
illustrates the monitoring point arrangement, and 23 monitoring
points are set. The average total sound pressure level (LpA ) on the
hemispherical surface is calculated under various operating condi-
tions. Here, LpA is defined as
1 m TSPLi /10
, (18) LpA = 10 l g( ∑ 10 ), (19)
m i=1
n
TSPL = 10 l g ∑ 10SPLi /10 , (20)
i=1

TABLE II. CFD settings used for flow field simulation.

Items Steady simulation Unsteady simulation

Viscous model Standard k- model

Moving
Motion type Moving mesh
Reference frame
Inlet Velocity inlet condition
Outlet Outflow condition
Walls No slip boundary conditions
The rotational angle changes
2○ per time step
Time step ...
Pressure-velocity coupling
Simple
algorithm
Discretization principle Second order upwind

Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937 32, 035115-5

Published under license by AIP Publishing
 Physics of Fluids ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf

FIG. 6. The experimental diagram.

where SPL is measured by the microphone and hydrophone and
m and n are the number of monitoring points and the number of
frequencies, respectively.
B. Comparison of simulation and experimental results
By using the Fourier transform, the amplitude of the sound
pressure perturbation in the frequency domain, i.e., the SPL and
TSPL, is calculated and compared with experimental results to val-
idate the accuracy of the simulation method. Figure 8 depicts the
comparison of SPL at f b and TSPL at various rotational speeds. It
is found that the deviations of SPL and TSPL are small, and the
average deviations of SPL and TSPL are, respectively, 4.16% and
1.32%. Besides, the TSPL obtained by experiment and simulation
presents the same changing trends and increases rapidly in the range
from 2700 rpm to 2900 rpm, which validates the accuracy of the
method.
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Synergy analysis of the centrifugal pump at rated
operating condition
The parameters used for the synergy analysis at the rated
operating condition, including velocity vector, sound pressure

TABLE IV. Applications and measurement characteristics of apparatus.

Apparatus Type Applications Measuring range Accuracy or sensitivity

Frequency converter Y0300G3 Regulating rotational speed ... ...

Three-phase asynchronous motor YVF2180L-2 Driving the pump ... ...
Valve ... Regulating flow rate ... ...
Flow meter SLDG-800 Measuring flow rate 0–100 m /h3
±0.2% (accuracy)
50 mV/Pa (sensitivity)
Microphone AWA14423L Measuring the radiation noise 10–20 kHz
±0.7 dB (accuracy)
Two channel signal analyzer AWA6290M+ Recording the radiation noise ... ...
Radiation noise analysis software S6290-1/3OCT Analyzing the radiation noise ... ...
−210 dB (sensitivity)
Hydrophone DHP8501 Measuring the flow noise 20–20 kHz
±1.5 dB (accuracy)
USB switch DHP8501 ... ... ...
Flow noise analysis software DHP8501 Analyzing the flow noise ... ...

Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937 32, 035115-6

Published under license by AIP Publishing
 Physics of Fluids
FIG. 7. The monitoring points arrangement. (a) Monitoring point arrangement in the
circumferential direction. (b) Monitoring point arrangement on the hemispherical
surface.
FIG. 8. The comparison of simulation and experimental results.
Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937
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ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
perturbation, and θ, are calculated first. Figures 9(a)–9(c) illustrates
the numerical results of the velocity vector chart, isoline of sound
pressure perturbation, and contour of θ on the middle span surface
when a blade is located at the tongue. Under the influence of cen-
trifugal force, the velocity in the impeller increases with increasing
radius, while in the volute, the kinetic energy of fluid is transformed
into pressure potential energy, so the velocity in the volute decreases
along the flow direction. The velocity vector direction is parallel to
the volute wall basically. Besides, under the influence of the sound
source, the sound pressure perturbation obtained by the Powell vor-
tex sound equation is less than 0. It can be seen directly from the
isoline of sound pressure perturbation that from the inlet to the
outlet of the impeller, the sound pressure perturbation decreases
gradually and changes sharply at the impeller outlet near the volute
tongue. While in the volute, the sound pressure perturbation reaches
minimum at the volute tongue and increases basically along the flow
direction. Due to the complexity of fluid flow inside the pump, the
fluctuation characteristics of velocity and sound pressure perturba-
tion are different at different spatial locations, so the contour of θ
calculated by Eq. (15) has no obvious distribution characteristics,
as shown in Fig. 9(c). In addition, θ mainly concentrates in a range
from 50○ to 130○ , which reflects the synergy degree between flow and
sound fields, and further reflects the impact of fluid flow on noise
propagation characteristics.
To reveal the changing characteristics of θ with flow time, 8
monitoring points are set in the impeller and the volute, as shown
in Fig. 10(a), and the fluctuation characteristics of θ in 90 time
steps are revealed. As shown in Fig. 10(b), θ at different monitor-
ing points in the impeller fluctuates periodically with flow time and
reaches to 0 when a blade passes through the points. Figure 10(c)
depicts the fluctuation characteristics of θ with flow time at differ-
ent monitoring points in the volute. It is observed that θ in the
volute is larger than 0 and also fluctuates periodically with flow
time. In addition, it can be found that for most monitoring points
in the impeller and the volute, when the blade is far away from
the monitoring points, the fluctuation amplitude of θ is relatively
small. As the blade passes through the monitoring points, the fluc-
tuation amplitude increases. The results imply that the blade motion
has significant effect on the synergy degree at different monitoring
points.
As mentioned above, θ has no obvious distribution characteris-
tics and fluctuates periodically with flow time. To reveal the synergy
degree changing characteristics of the whole domain, θave and the
time-averaged θave (θtave ) are calculated. Figure 11 shows the chang-
ing trends of θave in 90 time steps and θtave in the impeller and the
volute. It is found that θave changes little with flow time, indicating
that the synergy degree of the whole domain is basically unchanged
with flow time. Besides, θave in the impeller and the volute is less
and greater than 90○ , respectively, which is caused by that θ at most
locations in the impeller and the volute is less and greater than 90○ ,
respectively, and θtave in the impeller and the volute is 85.85○ and
91.23○ , respectively.
B. Exploration of the noise propagation
characteristics under various operating conditions
According to Sec. V A, θave changes little with flow time, so
θtave in the impeller and the volute, LpA outside the pump, and
32, 035115-7
 Physics of Fluids
FIG. 9. Numerical results of the velocity vector chart, isoline of sound pressure perturbation, and contour of θ inside the pump. (a) Velocity vector chart, (b) isoline of sound
pressure perturbation, and (c) contour of θ.
TSPL in the outlet pipe are compared under various operating con-
ditions to explore the propagation characteristics of flow-induced
noise based on the synergy analysis. Figures 12 and 13 reveal the
changing trends of the three parameters under various rotational
speeds and flow rates, respectively. Under various operating condi-
tions, θtave in the impeller is less than 90○ , while that in the volute is
greater than 90○ . With increasing rotational speed or flow rate, θtave
in the impeller and the volute decreases and increases, respectively,
i.e., θtave in the two domains gradually moves far away from 90○ ,
which implies that the synergy degree increases. Additionally, com-
pared with the variation of θtave in the volute, the variation of θtave in
the impeller is relatively great, indicating that the synergy degree in
Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937
Published under license by AIP Publishing
ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
the impeller has relatively great change with the change in operating
conditions.
For the flow-induced noise, the changing trends of TSPL in
the outlet pipe are apparently different from those of θtave . More
concretely, under various rotational speeds, the TSPL in the outlet
pipe increases slowly from 2100 rpm to 2700 rpm, then increases
rapidly from 2700 rpm to 2900 rpm. Under various flow rates, the
TSPL shows the trend that increases first from 37.5 m3 /h to 50 m3 /h,
then decreases from 50 m3 /h to 62.5 m3 /h, and increases slightly
again when the flow rate is higher than 62.5 m3 /h, and the mini-
mum of TSPL appears at 62.5 m3 /h. However, LpA outside the pump
increases gradually with increasing rotational speed or flow rate,
32, 035115-8
 Physics of Fluids ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf

FIG. 10. The fluctuation characteristics of θ at different monitoring points with flow time. (a) Monitoring points arrangement inside the pump. (b) The fluctuation characteristics
of θ in the impeller. (c) The fluctuation characteristics of θ in the volute.

FIG. 11. The changing trends of θave with flow time and θtave in the impeller and FIG. 12. The changing trends of noise level and θtave under various rotational
the volute. speeds.

Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937 32, 035115-9

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 Physics of Fluids
FIG. 13. The changing trends of noise level and θtave under various flow rates.
and the changing trends of LpA are similar to those of θtave . Specif-
ically, when the rotational speed increases from 2700 rpm to 2900
rpm or the flow rate increases from 50 m3 /h to 75 m3 /h, LpA and
θtave vary slightly. In the remaining operating condition ranges, the
two parameters have relatively great changes. The theoretical anal-
ysis results are consistent with the results of numerical simulation
and experimental measurement, indicating that the flow-induced
noise propagation mechanism of the centrifugal pump can be well
described by the change in synergy degree between flow and sound
fields, and the increase in synergy degree can cause the noise tending
to propagate outside.
C. The impact of the blade outlet angle on the noise
propagation characteristics
It is common knowledge that the noise affecting human health
and environment is external radiation noise. Therefore, it can be
considered to reduce the negative impact of flow-induced noise by
decreasing the synergy degree between flow and sound fields to
weaken the tendency of noise propagating outside. Based on the
above analysis, the synergy angle in the impeller is far away from
90○ and shows a relatively large change with the change in operat-
ing condition, so the impeller type can be improved. As the main
parameter of the impeller, the change in the blade outlet angle can
change the curve degree of the blade, and then the distribution
Phys. Fluids 32, 035115 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0003937
Published under license by AIP Publishing
ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
FIG. 15. The changing trends of synergy angle with different blade outlet angles.
characteristics of the flow and sound fields will change accord-
ingly, which can affect the synergy degree inside the pump and
further affect the noise propagation. Thus, the impact of blade out-
let angle on the propagation characteristics of flow-induced noise is
analyzed.
Based on the pump parameters listed in Table I, four models
with different blade outlet angles are established, as shown in Fig. 14,
including 15○ , 20○ , 30○ , and 35○ .
Figure 15 illustrates the synergy angle changing trends at
2900 rpm. It is found that the change in the blade outlet angle sig-
nificantly affects the synergy angle in the impeller, while it has little
effect on the synergy angle in the volute. When the angle increases
from 15○ to 35○ , θtave in the impeller increases by 2.25○ and tends
to approach 90○ gradually, while that in the volute changes little and
only increases by 0.5○ . Due to the difference of θtave in the impeller
and the volute, the deviation of θtave from 90○ (θdev ) in the two
domains is calculated. Here, θdev is defined as
θdev = ∣θtave − 90○ ∣.
(21)
As seen, θdev decreases from 6.48○ to 4.74○ gradually as the
angle increases from 15○ to 35○ , that is, the synergy angle tends to
approach 90○ , and the synergy degree decreases gradually, which
indicates that increasing the blade outlet angle can weaken the ten-
dency of noise propagating outside by decreasing the synergy degree
between flow and sound fields.
FIG. 14. 3-D shape of the blades with dif-
ferent angles: (a) 15○ , (b) 20○ , (c) 30○ ,
and (d) 35○ .
32, 035115-10
 Physics of Fluids
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and experimental
measurement are conducted to explore the flow-induced noise prop-
agation mechanism of the centrifugal pump based on flow and
sound field synergy concept. Conclusions can be drawn as follows:
(1) By combining the continuity and momentum equations as
well as the deduction of the sound wave equation, the
unsteady synergetic relationship between flow and sound
fields, i.e., the synergy between the velocity vector and sound
pressure perturbation gradient, can be obtained.
(2) The synergy angle at different monitoring points inside
the pump fluctuates periodically with flow time, while the
domain-averaged synergy angle (θave ) changes little, which
means that the synergy degree is basically unchanged with
flow time. θave is less and greater than 90○ in the impeller and
the volute, respectively.
(3) The synergy degree varies with the change in operating condi-
tion. With increasing rotational speed or flow rate, the time-
averaged θave (θtave ) in the impeller and the volute decreases
and increases, respectively, i.e., θtave moves far away from 90○
gradually, which implies that the synergy degree between flow
and sound fields increases. Meanwhile, the radiation noise
outside the pump measured by experiment increases gradu-
ally, and the changing trends of radiation noise are similar to
those of θtave that the variation of the two parameters tends
to be slight with increasing rotational speed or flow rate. The
results agree well with the synergy analysis and manifest that
the flow-induced noise propagation mechanism of the cen-
trifugal pump can be well described by the change in synergy
degree between flow and sound fields. The increase in synergy
degree can cause the flow-induced noise of the centrifugal
pump tending to propagate outside.
(4) As the blade outlet angle increases from 15○ to 35○ , θtave in
the impeller increases significantly by 2.25○ , while that in
the volute changes little and only increases by 0.5○ . Consid-
ering the synergy degree in the two domains comprehen-
sively, the deviation of θtave from 90○ decreases from 6.48○
to 4.74○ , that is, θtave tends to approach 90○ , and the synergy
degree decreases gradually, which means that increasing the
blade outlet angle can weaken the tendency of flow-induced
noise propagating outside by decreasing the synergy degree.
The results can provide guidelines for future noise control
research and structural optimization of centrifugal pumps.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51776111) and the Key Technology
Research and Development Program of Shandong Province (Grant
No. 2019GSF109084).
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