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Experimental and numerical investigations of head-flow curve instability of a

single-stage centrifugal pump with volute casing

Article  in  Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part A Journal of Power and Energy · August 2016
DOI: 10.1177/0957650916663326

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Original Article

Proc IMechE Part A:

J Power and Energy
Experimental and numerical 0(0) 1–15
! IMechE 2016

investigations of head-flow Reprints and permissions:

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curve instability of a single-stage DOI: 10.1177/0957650916663326

pia.sagepub.com

centrifugal pump with volute casing

Xiaojun Li, Zuchao Zhu, Yi Li and Xiaoping Chen

Abstract
Unstable or flat head-flow curves can cause problems in parallel operations or in flat systems. Despite the considerable
efforts that have been devoted to the study of head-flow curve instability in single-stage centrifugal pumps with volute
casing, the cause of such phenomenon is not sufficiently understood. In this study, we investigated the variation of
hydraulic losses based on the relationship between velocity distribution and entropy generation fields. Steady-state and
unsteady simulations were obtained for a pump with an impeller outlet diameter of 174 mm, and the unsteady results are
more coincided with the experiments. Results showed that the losses mainly focused on the blade suction surface and
volute tongue, as well as in the region of the volute discharge at high flow rates. The entropy generation rate of the pump
casing at partial flow rates changed slightly with a decrease in flow rate, whereas the energy losses in the impeller
increased steeply when the flow rate dropped to 35 m3/h (the design flow rate was 60 m3/h). The losses in the impeller
were mainly concentrated on the region near the inlet and outlet and were lower near the impeller inlet than near the
impeller outlet, where a counter-rotating vortex was developed near the blade trailing edge. The vortex caused a drastic
increase in the entropy generation rate on the pressure surface and in the flow passage. Such increase was the main cause
of the head-flow characteristic instability.

Keywords
Centrifugal pump, head-flow curve instability, entropy generation rate, rotor–stator interaction, hydraulic loss, internal
flow

Date received: 18 February 2016; accepted: 4 July 2016

Introduction
A single-stage single-entry pump with volute casing is
currently the most common type of centrifugal pump.
Although centrifugal pumps of this type are relatively
simple in design, are easy to maintain and operate and
offer a wide range of stable operations, ensuring that
the shape of the head-flow characteristic decreases
monotonically from shut-off to the maximum possible
flow rate remains a challenge. The head-flow charac-
teristic instability of this volute-type centrifugal pump
is caused by an abrupt increase in the hydraulic losses
in the stator, in the impeller or in both; it is also
associated with a flat or a positive slope of the curve
at deep part load conditions.1–3 The relative motion
between an impeller and a stator also introduces
unfavourable pump performance characteristics, espe-
cially for pumps with diffusers.4–7 In such a case,
the rotating stall in a diffuser is enough to cause the
instability of the head-flow curve, and the losses in the
diffuser account for most of the losses in the pump.8,9
However, drastically improving or eliminating the
averaged head instability by altering the characteris-
tics of the volute casing is not without uncertainties
because the interaction of a volute casing with an
impeller is weaker than that with a diffuser, although
the volute casing exerts a significant effect on pump
performance. Worster10 presented an overview of the
flow in volutes and discussed in detail the geometric
parameters of a pump (gap between the impeller and
the volute tongue, volute throat areas, shape of volute
cross section, surface roughness, etc.) and their effects
on centrifugal pump performance. Dong et al.11 and
Alemi et al.12 investigated the effect of the modifica-
tion of volute tongue geometry on the hydraulic
Key Laboratory of Fluid Transmission Technology of Zhejiang Province,
Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China
Corresponding author:
Zuchao Zhu, Key Laboratory of Fluid Transmission Technology of
Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018,
China.
Email: zuczhu@163.com

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2 Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)
performances of centrifugal pumps; a shortened volute
tongue and an enlarged radial gap between the impeller
and the volute tongue resulted in an unstable operating
range that ultimately led to a shut-off condition.
However, defining the respective roles of volute
tongue shape change and impeller–volute interaction
on characteristic instability is difficult because the mag-
nitude of pressure pulsation caused by the impeller–
volute interaction is also reduced in those processes.
Baun et al.13,14 presented concentric volutes, which
are characterised by larger gaps between the impeller
and the volute tongue and a weaker intensity of the
impeller–volute interaction in comparison with spiral
volutes, to ensure a stable head-flow characteristic
curve in some situations. Increasing the area of the
volute cross section and throat expands the stable oper-
ating range of pumps.15–17 Chang et al.18 pointed out
that a volute casing with a cross-sectional area that is
10% larger than that of a standard model is optimal at
low flow. However, increasing the area tends to modify
the pump head characteristics in terms of the overall
flow rates and significantly flattens the head-flow curve.
Despite the fact that extensive suggestions can be
applied to stabilise pump head characteristics, the
existing knowledge on the unstable characteristics of
pumps is still not satisfying because of the complexity
of flow structures and geometric parameters.
Consequently, a method with a stabilising effect on
one pump may prove invalid on another pump.
Take for example, the number of impeller blades; an
appropriate increase in the number of blades is known
to be helpful in controlling flow patterns at reduced
flow rates. The numerical analyses of the low-specific-
speed high-speed centrifugal pump carried out by
Jafarzadeh et al.19 showed that a pump with a
seven-blade impeller exhibits a stable head curve
and that the corresponding characteristic of a five-
blade impeller in the same volute is unstable. A simi-
lar experiment was performed by Baun and Flack,13
but they obtained contradicting results. In our previ-
ous studies,20,21 the head of a pump with 16 blades
could not be measured when the rotating speed was
8500 r/min because of the severe head fluctuation at
deep part load conditions. The numerical result
showed an undesirable recirculation near the impeller
outlet. Eight more splitter blades were added near the
pressure side of the full blades to overcome the char-
acteristic instability. Shojaeefard et al.22 experimen-
tally and numerically investigated the effects of the
viscosity of fluids on the centrifugal pump perform-
ance and flow pattern in the impeller. They found that
the centrifugal pump head-flow curve is unstable
when handling water. Although high viscosity results
in rapid increases in hydraulic losses, the correspond-
ing characteristic remains stable during the pumping
of oil. This condition may be partly caused by the
reduction of flow detachments at the impeller outlet.
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Krause et al.23 performed particle image velocimetry
to investigate the influence of blade geometry on the
flow instabilities in a radial pump; they observed a
counter-rotating recirculation flow near the impeller
outlet in all three impellers at 20% of the design flow
rate. Despite the fact that flow is fully blocked in an
impeller with a single-circular arc blade (CA impeller)
but can still circulate at a low rate along the pressure
side for an impeller with a constant reduction in rela-
tive velocity (CONST impeller), the head of a pump
with a CA impeller is higher at a 20% flow rate; how-
ever, the reason for such difference is not available in
the literature. Unlike other impellers, a CA impeller
features a large recirculation zone along the direction
of its rotation in the middle of the channel. The local
vortices that form at the impeller inlet also produce
backflow at reduced flow rates. Sinha et al.24 pro-
posed a flow straightener (honeycombs and screen)
at the inlet to smoothen the inflow and overcome
backflow. Miyabe et al.25 placed a swirl stop at the
inlet of a mixed flow pump and found that the flow
rate at which characteristic instability occurs is rela-
tively low. Cheah et al.26 compared volute pumps with
straight and curved intake sections and found that the
counter-rotating vortex that develops at the inlet
severely affects characteristic instability.
Currently, close attention should be paid to deter-
mining the relationship between the flow structures
(i.e., a stall cell or a vortex) in hydraulic components
and the unstable characteristics of centrifugal pumps.
The relationship between flow field and hydraulic
losses can be used as an alternative because pump
heads can be characterised by hydraulic losses.
According to Herwig and coworkers,27,28 hydraulic
losses can be determined with entropy generation rate
(EGR), and an optimisation strategy based on EGR
can be applied to minimise the losses of conduit com-
ponents. The generation of entropy was introduced by
Li et al.8 and Gong et al.29 to analyse hydraulic losses
in hydro turbines; the authors concluded that the
entropy generation analysis method has the advantage
of determining the quantity of energy dissipation and
where the dissipation occurs. Therefore, EGR field and
local flow velocity distribution are adopted in the pre-
sent work to analyse the cause of the head-flow curve
instability of a single-stage centrifugal pump.
The paper is arranged as follows. First, brief
descriptions of the entropy generation method,
numerical modelling and test apparatus are presented.
Then, the results of the numerical simulation per-
formed with the ANSYS-CFX 16.2 are shown. The
analysis is focused on the change in flow topology and
hydraulic losses with a decrease in flow rate. Finally,
the experimental results obtained under various rotat-
ing speeds and impeller diameters are provided to
verify the effect of rotor–stator interaction on head-
flow characteristic instability.
Li et al. 3

Entropy generation method Z

S_D0 ¼ S_000
D0 dV ð7Þ
The losses in a flow field mean the irreversible conver- V
sion of the available energy to unavailable energy; this Z
dissipation of energy results in the generation of _ S_D þS_D0 ¼
S¼ S_000 dV ð8Þ
entropy. The local EGR in a flow field is as follows30 V

"      #  
 @u 2 @v 2 @w 2 @u @v 2 Here, the symbol V means the whole flow passage
S_000 ¼ 2 þ þ þ þ of the volute-type centrifugal pump, including the
T @x @y @z @y @x
 2  2 ! impeller and the pump casing as well as the leaking
@u @v @v @w flow passage. Once the local EGR S_000 and the overall
þ þ þ þ
@z @x @z @y entropy generation S_ have been evaluated by the
ð1Þ above relations, the relationship between the velocity
and EGR field can be easily obtained.
assuming an isothermal flow at a temperature T. In addition, as the impeller and pump casing have
For turbulent flows with the Reynolds-averaged difference volume, the EGR per unit volume is intro-
equations, the local EGR S_000 can be expressed by duced to compare the energy losses in the impeller and
the following relation31 the pump casing, defined as
Z
S_000 ¼ S_000 _000
D þSD0 ð2Þ S_0 ¼
1
S_000 dV ð9Þ
V V
0
with the subscripts D and D for the contributions due
to the time-averaged movement and fluctuations of
the velocity field, respectively. They are Main data of the investigated pump and
"      #  test rig

 @u 2 @v 2 @w 2 @u @v 2 Experimental apparatus
S_000
D ¼ 2 þ þ þ þ
T @x @y @z @y @x
 2  2 ! Figure 1 shows the test equipment, which is a closed
@u @v @v @w one that consists of three parts: the recycle water flow
þ þ þ þ
@z @x @z @y loop, model pump and data acquisition equipment.
ð3Þ The facility water is held in a 4.5-m3 stainless steel
"      # 
reservoir tank, a rotary-vane vacuum pump is used
 to adjust the pressure inside the reservoir tank and
 @u0 2 @v0 2 @w0 2 @u0 @v0 2
S_000
D0 ¼ 2 þ þ þ þ the flow rate is varied by the outlet butterfly valve
T @x @y @z @y @x
 0    ! and is measured by a turbine flowmeter. A 7.5-kW
2 2
@u @v0 @v0 @w0 AC electromotor powered by a variable frequency
þ þ þ þ
@z @x @z @y controller was used to drive the test pump. The rota-
ð4Þ tional speed is measured using a photoelectric tach-
ometer. Both the suction and discharge average
The values of S_000
D in equation (3) can be directly pressure signals are measured by piezoelectric pres-
obtained by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) sure transducers with the ranges from 1 to 1 bar
results, but not S_000
D0 in equation (4). According to at the inlet and 0 to 6 bar installed at the outlet of
Kock and Herwig,32 a basic model which basically the pump. In order to ensure the stability of the aver-
relates S_000
D0 to the turbulence dissipation rate " and age pressure, four-point connections are adopted, and
which can be justified in the limit of infinite Reynolds the positions of the sensors are shown in Figure 2.
numbers. The distribution of S_000
D0 in the field can be A PXI 4472B data acquisition module which was
approximately given by the expression made by National Instruments Company was applied
to capture the electric signals and convert them to
!k digital signals.
S_000
D0 ¼  ð5Þ
T

where k and ! are the turbulence kinetic energy and

Parameters of centrifugal pump
characteristic frequency in the Shear-Stress Transport The test pump used in this work was a single-stage
k-! model, respectively. The empirical constant single-entry centrifugal pump made up of a six-blade
 ¼ 0.09. The total EGR is the volume integration of shrouded impeller and a volute, as shown in Figure 3.
the specific EGR, namely The specific speed was ns ¼ 101.6 at the designed point
Z (ns ¼ 3.65 nQ0.5H0.75/60). The design parameters of
_ S_000
SD ¼ D dV ð6Þ the pump are as follows: head Hd ¼ 32 m, rotating
V

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4 Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)

Figure 1. Schematic of the closed test rig (not drawn to scale): (1), (3) and (13) ball valve; (2) vacuum pump; (4) pressure tank;
(5) and (10) butterfly valve; (6) gate valve; (7) turbine flowmeter; (8) pressure transducer; (9) test pump; (11) electromotor and
(12) buffer tank.

Figure 2. Experimental setup with instrumentation.

speed nd ¼ 2900 r/min and flow rate Qd ¼ 60 m3/h. The
main geometric parameters of the pump are presented
in Table 1.
The reduction of impeller outlet diameter and
rotating speed was proposed to investigate the influ-
ence of rotor–stator interaction on head-flow curve
instability. The pump impeller was reduced in 4 mm
diameter steps from the initial outlet diameter D2 ¼
174 mm to the final D2 ¼ 162 mm. A two-dimensional
blade perpendicular to the shrouds was designed in
the impeller exit area to maintain an approximate
constant blade angle at the exit, 2 ¼ 20 , and increase
the impeller outlet width slightly. Four impellers with
different diameters were produced with a rapid proto-
typing technology and using acrylonitrile butadiene
styrene. The impellers were fitted in the same volute
casing, and series of experiments were performed at
various speeds to determine the pump characteristics
without cavitation. Table 2 shows the experimental
results at the best efficiency point (BEP) at the
design speed of 2900 r/min (Figure 4).
Numerical method and model
description
Hexahedral grid elements for all the pump parts were
generated with ANSYS ICEM-CFD 16.2, and care
was taken to concentrate the grid in the tongue
region of the volute. All the stationary parts of the
pump passage and pump casing were assembled

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Li et al. 5

Figure 3. Outline of the centrifugal pump: (a) section view of the pump and (b) pump passage.

parts: (i) inlet duct (Lin/Ds ¼ 6), (ii) impeller, (iii)

Table 1. Parameters of the test centrifugal pump. pump casing and (iv) outlet duct (Lout/Do ¼ 4).
Figure 5 shows the generated grids for the impeller
Parameters Sign Value
and pump casing. A local mesh sensitivity test was
Inlet diameter of pump (mm) Ds 65 performed on the small gaps in the shroud and hub
Outlet diameter of pump (mm) Do 50 side chambers, such as the wear ring region, which
Inlet diameter of impeller (mm) D1 75 included 70 layers for the wear ring with a length of
Outlet diameter of impeller (mm) D2 174 15 mm and 17 layers for the radial with a clearance of
Blade width at exit (mm) b2 12
0.6 mm. The grids near the solid walls were refined.
Thus, a boundary layer was used to ensure that the
Blade angle at exit ( ) 2 20
non-dimensional normal distance from the blade
Blade number Z 6
surface, yþ, was in a reasonable range. The mean yþ
Volute tongue diameter (mm) D3 184 value for the impeller was close to 5.1, and that for the
Inlet width of volute (mm) b3 20 pump casing was 6.9, which is acceptable in this simu-
lation; the yþ distribution is shown in Figure 6.
The actual refinement was globally performed, with
the number of nodes proportionally increasing both
Table 2. BEP values of different impellers at 2900 r/min. inside and outside the boundary layer, because
our focus was the deep part load operation. Finally,
Blade Blade
the total number of nodes used in the calculation was
Outlet outlet outlet Flow Total
diameter angle width rate head Efficiency approximately 17.8 million. The grid elements of the
(mm) ( ) (mm) (m3/h) (m) (%) impeller and pump casing were 8.5 million and 7.6
million, respectively.
174 20 12 60 32.5 77.17 In the present simulation, static pressure was spe-
170 20 12.3 54.6 32.4 76.79 cified at the inlet of the suction pipe, and the outlet
166 20.3 12.6 54.5 30.6 76.57 boundary condition was set up as a mass flow rate.
162 20.7 12.9 54.5 29.1 77.39 The values were obtained from the laboratory tests.
The internal and external impeller surfaces were mod-
elled using a rotating wall, and the speed equalled the
together, along with the volute and side chambers nominal rotating speed; all the other walls were sta-
between the impeller and the volute, to minimise the tionary. All the walls (hubs, shrouds, blades, volute
number of interfaces. Thus, the leakage flow effects and pipe walls) were smooth and without slip, that is,
were taken into account. Therefore, the computa- the effect of wall roughness was neglected in this
tional domain was divided into four individual study. The steady-state and transient results were

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6 Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)

Figure 4. Impeller with maximum outlet diameter: (a) 3D model and (b) photograph.

Figure 5. Grid view of centrifugal pump: (a) axial section view and (b) middle section view.

calculated with the SST k-! turbulence model. For
the convergence criteria, the steady-state calculations
continued until all the root mean square (RMS) resi-
duals dropped below 2  105. The RMS 4 1  105
was imposed as the convergence criterion for transi-
ent calculations. The simulation time was 25 revo-
lutions with 180 time steps per impeller revolution.
Furthermore, the interfaces between the rotor and
its neighbouring sub-domains were set up as a
frozen rotor for the steady-state and transient rotor–
stator in transient solutions.
The measured and predicted performances of the
centrifugal pump are displayed in Figure 7 to validate
the calculation accuracy of the current numerical
method. Each transient result was based on the aver-
aged value of the last two impeller revolutions. The
results of the stationary calculations are also pre-
sented for comparison. In this situation, the relative
position of the angle between the blade trailing edge
and the volute tongue was 0 . The predicted pump
characteristic curves over a wide flow range were in
reasonable agreement with the experimental results
for both stationary and transient conditions. The
hydraulic efficiency calculated numerically remained
slightly higher than the experimental values for
almost the whole range, whereas the transient results
matched the experimental values better. For the pre-
dicted head, the stationary calculation head was
slightly lower than the experimental value, possibly
because the pump head was at its minimum when the
impeller blade was at 0 .33 The head values obtained
from the steady-state calculation were very close to
that of the transient calculation at the design condition
and overload operating conditions, whereas the differ-
ence of the two gradually increased with a decrease in
flow rate. The transient calculation showed a steeper
head curve than the experimental values and a strong
instability in the deep part load operation.
Figure 8 presents the comparison of the pressure
coefficient fluctuations in the frequency domains and

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Li et al. 7

the numerical simulation and experiments for both where p and p are the static and time average static
1.0Qd and 0.5Qd at the pump outlet. The monitor pressures, respectively and u1 is the circumferential
point was set at the same location as that in the velocity at the impeller inlet.
experiment for comparison, as shown in Figure 2. At the BEP, the blade passing frequency
The pressure coefficient cp is defined as follows (6f0 ¼ 290 Hz, f0 is axial frequency) caused by the
rotor–stator interaction and its harmonics were the

2ð p  pÞ dominant components for both the numerical and
cp ¼ 2
ð10Þ
u1 experimental results. The predicted frequency compo-
nent coincided with the experiment result, whereas the
amplitude was over predicted. An evident difference
between the blade passing frequency and its har-
monics can be found at 0.5Qd despite their predom-
inant roles in pressure fluctuations. Moreover, the
sub-peak of the pressure fluctuation with different
values was obtained near the axial frequency in the
numerical simulation and experiments.

Analysis of energy losses in pump

Figure 6. Distribution of yþ on the pump surfaces.
at 2900 rpm
The total EGR of the pump and the EGR per unit
volume for the impeller and pump casing under vari-
ous flow rates are presented in Figure 9. Two inter-
esting aspects could be summarised from the figure.
First, the tendency of the total EGR was described.
The minimum EGR was obtained near the BEP, and
an increase in the total EGR occurred at off-design
conditions. The total EGR increased slowly with
the flow rate decrease at partial flow rates and then
increased steeply when the flow rate dropped to
35 m3/h. The simulation results indicated that the
method of entropy generation analysis is suitable for
evaluating the performance of centrifugal pumps.
Second, the EGR of the pump casing changed slightly

Figure 7. Performance curves of centrifugal pump at 2900 r/min.

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8 Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)

Figure 8. Frequency spectra of pressure fluctuations near the pump outlet, CFD versus measurements: (a) Qd and (b) 0.5Qd.

Figure 9. EGR data under various flow rates: (a) total EGR and (b) entropy production rate per unit volume.

with a decrease in flow rate, and no obvious difference
could be found in the entropy generation data when
the pump operated at the head instability region.
Hence, the energy losses in the volute casing were
probably not the main reason for the instability of
the averaged pump head. The energy losses that
occurred in the impeller accounted for most of the
instability under deep part load conditions.
Figures 10 and 11, respectively, report the EGR
distributions with the same range values in the impel-
ler passages and blade surface regions. These EGR
distributions were used to investigate the relevant
details of the internal flow losses in the impeller at
various flow rates. Flow rates were selected to show
the transition of the decreasing flow rate from the flow
in which no flow separation occurs to the conditions
of massive stall in the impeller passage. The instant-
aneous velocity vector in the impeller is also presented
in Figure 11 for comparison.
Figure 10 presents the distribution of the EGR in
blade-to-blade view at 0.7 span, which is shown in
Figure 3, for different flow rates. The EGR in the
impeller changed slightly when the pump operated
near the BEP. In these conditions, the area featuring
a high EGR was located at the blade leading edge for
suction and pressure surfaces at the impeller outlet.
This behaviour indicated that the energy loss was
mainly caused by the shock at the leading edge and
the wake effect at the trailing edge. The high-speed
leakage flow (jet-flow) in the gap between the impeller
and the volute tongue was attributed to the non-uni-
form velocity distribution near the impeller outlet, as
shown in Figure 11(g), which caused an obvious dif-
ference in the EGR distribution between the adjacent
impeller passages (Figure 10(g)). At high flow rates,
the increasing value of the EGR mainly focused on
the blade suction surface because no obvious flow
separation in the flow passage was observed; the

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Li et al. 9

Figure 10. Distribution of EGR in blade-to-blade view at 0.7 span. (a) Q = 8 m3/h; (b) 13 m3/h; (c) 18 m3/h; (d) 25 m3/h; (e) 30 m3/h
and (f) 35 m3/h.
EGR: entropy generation rate.

Figure 11. Distribution on the blades and instantaneous velocity vector in the passages at: (a) 8 m3/h; (b) 13 m3/h; (c) 18 m3/h; (d) 25 m3/h;
(e) 30 m3/h; (f) 35 m3/h; (g) 50 m3/h; (h) 70 m3/h and (i) 80 m3/h.

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10 Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)

value was even higher than that on the pressure side in

most regions at 80 m3/h (Figures 10(j) and 11(i)). The
strength and range of the high EGR at the leading
edge of the blade surfaces consistently decreased
with the flow rate, whereas the EGR caused by the
backflow in the passage of the impeller inlet increased.
This phenomenon indicated that the losses in the
impeller inlet region mainly occurred on the blade
suction surfaces at a high flow rate, whereas the
losses mostly originated from the flow separation in
the flow passage at partial flow rates. This conclusion
may explain why the alteration of the bale inlet struc-
ture affects pump performance. The comparison of
centrifugal pumps with and without splitter blades
carried out by Cavazzini et al.34 showed that the
head characteristic noticeably improves under large
flow rates but not under partial ones, in which case
a lower head value is observed. A similar result was
also mentioned by Sen and Breugelmans35 in their Figure 13. Schematic of impeller with slots.

Figure 12. Relative velocity vectors at impeller mid span during one time period for 30 m3/h: (a) 0.256 T; (b) 0.422 T; (c) 0.589 T; (d)
0.661 T; (e) 0.711 T; (f) 0.733T; (g) 0.756 T and (h) 0.778 T.

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Li et al. 11

research, that is, the incident flow acting on the blade
leading edge may cause relatively high energy losses at
large flow rates, and advancing the leading edge is
helpful in eliminating head-flow instability.
As mentioned previously, the total EGR increased
steeply when the flow rate dropped to 35 m3/h.
Figures 10 and 11 show that the high EGR was
mainly concentrated on the region near the impeller
inlet and outlet. The value near the impeller inlet was
lower than that near the impeller outlet, where a coun-
ter-rotating vortex developed near the blade trailing
edge (pressure side); the same was not observed under
a flow pattern of 35 m3/h. These conditions explained
the increase in losses (Figures 11(e)). As the flow

Figure 14. Comparison of head-flow curves of centrifugal pump with different slots.

Figure 15. EGR distribution in the volute at: (a) 13 m3/h; (b) 18 m3/h; (c) 25 m3/h; (d) 35 m3/h; (e) 40 m3/h; (f) 60 m3/h; (g) 70 m3/h
and (h) 80 m3/h.

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12
further decreased, the enlarged counter-rotating
vortex caused a strong reserve flow in the entire area
of one impeller passage, and a drastic increase in the
EGR occurred on the pressure surface and in the flow
passage (Figures 10(b) and 11(b)).
Figure 12 shows the evolution of the counter-
rotating vortex in the impeller channel and its effects
on the EGR distribution on the blade surfaces. The
flow separation that occurred at the impeller outlet led
to the partial blocking of the impeller channels near
the volute tongue. Moreover, the flow separation zone
appeared on the impeller channel next to the tongue in
the time sequence, and the zone did not propagate
to the adjacent channels but tended to disappear
with the rotation of the impeller. At the same time,
a new separation zone was found in the next channel.
With the effect of the counter-rotating vortex, the dir-
ection of the relative velocity vectors changed at the
trailing edge of the impeller. The flow impinged
against the blade pressure surface, and this impinge-
ment could explain the high hydraulic losses in the
impeller channel close to the volute tongue.
Two types of slots with rectangular cross-sectional
areas installed near the blade trailing edge close to the
hub were proposed (Figure 13) to analyse the influence
of the counter-rotating vortex on the head-flow
Figure 16. Comparison of head-flow curves of centrifugal pump with different impeller outlet diameters and rotating speeds.
(a) D2 ¼ 174 mm; (b) 170 mm; (c) 166 mm; (d) 162 mm.
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Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 0(0)
characteristic instability. The two slots had the same
configurations (width of 2 mm and depth of 3 mm), but
their positions were different. They were evenly
arranged around the impeller shaft. One had a distance
to the shaft of 0.75D2 and was thus named as the 0.75D
model, and the other had a distance to the shaft of
0.86D2 and was thus named as the 0.86D model. The
impellers were also produced with the rapid prototyp-
ing technology and then measured in the closed test rig.
Experimental head curves with two different con-
ditions are shown in Figure 14, which also shows the
result of the impeller with a diameter of 174 mm, as
previously presented in Figure 8, for comparison. The
0.75D model with slots located in the interaction
region of the vortices with opposite rotating directions
could suppress the instability of the head-flow. The
probable explanation is that the flow structure inside
the impeller was disturbed and that the jet-wake flow
at the exit of the impeller caused by secondary flows
was weakened. As the head is sensitive to the geom-
etry parameters of the impeller outlet, more attention
should be paid to the ways to deal with these param-
eters. The pump with the 0.86D model had a negative
effect on the head-flow performance curve. This result
showed that the pump head was lower than the con-
ventional one over the entire flow rate range.
Li et al.
Effect of rotor–stator interaction
on head-flow curve instability
Figure 15 shows the EGR distribution in the volute at
various flow rates. The regions close to the tongue and
volute discharge at high flow rates showed high
energy losses. The wake effect caused by the coun-
ter-rotating flow separation at partial flow rates led
to a higher EGR in the region of the impeller–volute
interaction, thus accounting for most losses at these
conditions. This behaviour further confirmed the
energy losses for the volute pump mainly located at
the region close to the impeller outlet because energy
losses occurred when the fluid flowed through the
volute. Energy loss was also induced by the inter-
action between the impeller and the volute tongue.
Nevertheless, extensive studies should be carried out
to understand the detailed effect of rotor–stator inter-
actions on head-flow curve instability. In the present
study, four impellers with various outlet diameters
(174, 170, 166 and 162 mm) were designed (Tables 1
and 2). The experimental pump characteristics are
plotted in Figure 16, which also presents the max-
imum value of the head for each rotating speed.
Figure 16 shows that the maximum head point did
not move monotonously to a low flow rate with the
reduction of the impeller outlet diameter and rotating
speed. Moreover, the methods mentioned above did
not completely eliminate the head-flow curve instabil-
ity. For the impeller with an outlet diameter of
174 mm, the flow rate corresponding to the maximum
head point moved from 17.8 m3/h to 13.8 m3/h with
the rotating speed changing from 2770 r/min to
2030 r/min. For the impeller with 166 mm outlet diam-
eter, the corresponding flow rate was 15.8 m3/h at
2030 r/min. No significant change in the flow rates,
at which the maximum head occurred, could not be
found when the impeller diameter changed from
166 mm to 162 mm, thus indicating that the inter-
action effects between the impeller blades and the
volute tongue were reduced by the large tongue gap
and low rotating speed. The pressure distribution
around the impeller periphery became increasingly
uniform. Nevertheless, the increase in the leakage
flow in the tongue gap exerted a passive effect on
the positive head-flow performance curve. As a con-
sequence, the rotor–stator interaction played a dom-
inant role in flow instability but exerted a slight effect
on the head-flow performance curve instability for the
volute-type centrifugal pump. Therefore, reducing the
intensity of the rotor–stator interaction is not a viable
approach to gain a stable head-flow curve.
Conclusions
In this work, the head-flow curve instability of a
single-stage volute-type centrifugal pump was exam-
ined via experimental tests and numerical analyses.
EGR and the conversion of mechanical energy to
internal energy were considered to identify the
Downloaded from pia.sagepub.com at Jiangsu University on August 25, 2016
13
remarkable increase in hydraulic losses at partial
flow rates. The relationship between the flow field
and the hydraulic losses was obtained on the basis
of the local values of velocity and EGR fields. In add-
ition, the appearance of pump characteristic instabil-
ity could be associated with the unstable flow pattern
at a partial flow rate. In these conditions, the energy
losses in the volute were mainly located in the region
of the impeller–volute interaction. Further research
found that rotor–stator interaction might cause flow
pulsations, but it is not the main reason for the
unstable head-flow curve. The backflow at the impel-
ler inlet and the counter-rotating vortex at the outlet
of the impeller channels close to the tongue contrib-
uted to the head-flow characteristic instability.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Prof Shouqi Yuan and Dr
Jiaxing Lu of Jiangsu University for sharing the experimen-
tal data.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This work was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51536008,
51409233), the Foundation of Zhejiang Provincial Education
Department (Grant No. Y201432052), the Open Research
Subject of Key Laboratory of Fluid and Power Machinery
for Ministry of Education (Grant No. szjj2014-034) and
Science Foundation of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University of
China (Grant No. 14022004-Y).
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Appendix
Notation
b2 blade width at exit (mm)
b3 inlet width of volute (mm)
Do outlet diameter of pump (mm)
Ds inlet diameter of pump (mm)
D1 inlet diameter of impeller (mm)
D2 outlet diameter of impeller (mm)
D3 volute tongue diameter (mm)
f0 axial frequency (Hz)
H pump head (m)
Hd designed pump head (m)
k turbulence kinetic energy (m2/s2)
L intake/discharge pipe length (m)
n rotation speed (r/min)
nd designed rotation speed (r/min)
 Li et al. 15

ns specific speed ¼ 3.65 nQ0.5H0.75/60 u, v, w velocity components (m/s)

p static pressure (Pa) u1 circumferential velocity at the impeller
p time average static pressure (Pa) inlet (m/s)
Q actual flow rate (m3/h) V volume (m3)
Qd designed flow rate (m3/h) x, y, z Cartesian coordinates (m)
S_ entropy generation rate (W/K) yþ dimensionless wall distance
S_D entropy generation rate due to dissipa- Z blade number (–)
tion based on the time-averaged vel-
2 blade angle at exit ( )
ocity field (W/K)
" specific turbulent dissipation rate (m2/s3)
S_D0 entropy generation rate due to dissipa-
 efficiency of pump (–)
tion based on the fluctuating part of the
 dynamic viscosity (Pa s)
velocity field (W/K)
 density (kg/m3)
S_0D entropy generation rate per unit volume
! turbulence eddy frequency (1/s)
(W/K/m3)
T thermodynamic temperature (K)

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