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ICEMCE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2450 (2023) 012031 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2450/1/012031

Numerical Simulation of Centrifugal Pump Cavitation Based

on ANSYS

Jie Dong1*, and Wei Li2

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Xijing University, Xi'an, Shaanxi province,
710123, China
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Xijing University, Xi'an, Shaanxi province,
710123, China
*
Corresponding author’s e-mail: 1527479662@qq.com

Abstract: Centrifugal pump is the key equipment in petrochemical, agriculture, shipbuilding

and other industries. Its safe, reliable and reliable work is an important guarantee to ensure its
normal operation. Cavitation is a kind of unsteady compressible turbulent flow, which has a
great influence on its performance and efficiency due to material exchange between gas and
liquid phases. The appearance of the impeller internal cavitation phenomenon will reduce the
pump head and efficiency, which is caused by the impeller and other flow components of
damage, causing greater noise, and thereby the pump work and work performance have been
greatly affected. Improving the efficiency of the centrifugal pump will undoubtedly reduce the
social requirements for energy, which is consistent with the current goal of energy
conservation and emission reduction advocated by society. The performance and efficiency of
a centrifugal pump can be improved effectively by numerical simulation and analysis of the
cavitation phenomenon.

1. Introduction
Fluid mechanics is a general term for machines that use liquid as a working medium to convert energy
into power. The pump is the most commonly used fluid machinery, which is the mechanical energy or
other external forces transported to the liquid conveying device to improve the hydraulic force. Its role
is to transport water, oil and other liquids, as well as liquid-solid and liquid gas. Its main performance:
flow rate, head and efficiency, etc.; According to its working principle, the pump is divided into a
positive displacement pump and a vane pump, etc. A positive displacement pump uses its working
chamber volume change to transport energy; the rotation of the impeller drives the flow of water,
causing the flow to produce a centrifugal flow. The most common types are centrifugal pumps, axial
flow pumps and mixed flow pump[1].
Centrifugal pump is a kind of machine widely used by the public and has been widely used in
industry, agriculture and other fields. But its work efficiency is generally low, and consumption is very
large. Therefore, to meet higher work requirements, the pump needs to be designed according to the
actual situation. Cavitation performance has a great influence on the performance of a centrifugal
pump. Due to cavitation, the working performance of the centrifugal pump will be greatly reduced.
The bubbles caused by cavitation will not only cavitate the impeller and other over-current parts, but
also cause vibration and noise during the operation of the equipment[2].

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ICEMCE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2450 (2023) 012031 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2450/1/012031

Usually, under a certain pressure, the molecules with more kinetic energy in the liquid will break
away from the mutual attraction of the molecules on the liquid surface and form a gas molecule. Just
as when a fluid is moving, the pressure decreases as the flow speed increases, when the pressure drops
to a certain temperature, the liquid changes from liquid to water vapor, resulting in a bubble filled with
water vapor or gas[3]. As the liquid phase changes, the bubble size will also become larger or smaller.
As they enter the area of low pressure, they gradually grow and form larger bubbles. Then, the vacuole
will enter the high-pressure area, the water vapor in the bubble will condense again, and the bubble
will disappear. In engineering, evaporation of a stationary or flowing liquid at a specific temperature
leads to the generation, development and collapse of vacuoles in the liquid, as well as a series of
physical and chemical changes, which is called cavitation[4].
Today, centrifugal pumps are characterized by high efficiency, cavitation resistance, safety and
stability, which are the focus of research and development. Therefore, it is necessary to study the
inflow of centrifugal pumps under cavitation conditions to improve their cavitation resistance. In the
process of cavitation, the interaction of gas-liquid two phases makes the internal cavitation process
more complex, and the theoretical defects make it impossible for further improvement. Therefore,
scholars at home and abroad have carried out a large number of numerical simulations and
experimental studies on centrifugal pumps, obtained plenty of cavitation parameters, and achieved
some results[5].
This paper mainly aimed at a two-phase flow numerical simulation of the centrifugal pump, and the
cavitation process in the process of cavitation is studied from the theoretical analysis of the cavitation
process impeller, surface pressure, velocity and cavitation development. This paper is based on Solid
works, ANSYS-Fluent, 3D overall modeling, mesh division and numerical simulation as the main
content. On this basis, the air pocket characteristics of the centrifugal pump are quantitatively analyzed,
the numerical calculation results under different working conditions are compared, and the feasibility
and existing problems of the scheme are analyzed.
Main implementation scheme of this paper:
(1) Three-dimensional modeling of the full flow path of a centrifugal pump, including the casing,
the imprint, and the Abrasion zone;
(2) Numerical simulation of the whole flow channel of the centrifugal water pump is carried out
with the special pre-processing software AnSYS-Fluent, and the grid division and test are carried out.
Due to the complex geometry of the calculation area, tetrahedral elements are used in this paper under
the premise of considering the accuracy of calculation and structure, and the independence test of the
mesh is carried out.
(3) By comparing the results of cavitation numerical simulation, the differences, relationships and
possible causes between them are found; The flow field after cavitation is studied.

2. Numerical simulation of pump cavitation flow

Using the 3D simulation programs Solid works and ANSYS-Fluent, this paper simulates the cavitation
process of this pump, including 3D modeling, meshing, preprocessing, operation condition setting,
calculation result processing and so on.

2.1. Three-dimensional geometric modeling of centrifugal pump

The modeling process of the impeller is as follows:
(1) This type of impeller blade is 8;
(2) The rotation surface of the blade is realized by the piecewise method, and the real three-
dimensional geometric model of the blade is obtained. Through the array instruction, 8 blades
uniformly distributed on the impeller are obtained. As shown in Figure 1:

2
ICEMCE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2450 (2023) 012031 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2450/1/012031

Figure 1: A three-dimensional view of a centrifugal pump

2.2. ANSYS meshing

ANSYS provides the following grids:
(1) Tetrahedral mesh: suitable for complex geometric models, easy to generate.
(2) Hexahedral mesh method: it is suitable for describing two interface surfaces, has good quality
and clear shape, and is suitable for high-precision mesh models, but its generation process is rather
tedious.
(3) O-Grid grid: can be used to describe the curve and curve characteristics, and can well express
the edge of the curve.
(4) Triangular prism mesh method: suitable for the characterization of thin wall properties.
Considering the complexity of the calculation area, a tetrahedral element with a precision of 0.003
mesh was used to check the whole flow channel of the centrifugal pump by mesh method on the
premise of ensuring the accuracy of calculation and structure. The whole flow channel of the
centrifugal pump is divided into 176541 computational grid cells with 889905 nodes, and the grid and
check are carried out. This is shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2: Grid diagram of centrifugal pump

2.3. Flow simulation of 1800 r/mim centrifugal pump

2.3.1. Conditions set

(1) Type: pressure-based Pressure correction; our own Velocity Formulation is Absolute. Time:
Transient transient time.
(2) Model: k-epsilon's quadratic equation model; k-epsilon model: real-time; Near-Wall Treatment
C. Scalable Wall Functions;
(3) Fluent Fluid Materials: water-liquid; Density: 998.2kg/m3; Viscosity: 0.001003kg/m-s;
(4) The material of the sleeve and impeller area is set as water-liquid;
(5) The unit of angular speed is set to rpm revolutions per minute;

3
ICEMCE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2450 (2023) 012031 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2450/1/012031

(6) Pressure: 0.3; Density: 1; Body Forces: 1; Momentum: 0.7; Turbulent Kinetic energy is 0.8.
Turbulent dissipation rate: 0.8; Viscosity turbulence: 1.

2.3.2. Results of the analysis

Figures 3 and 4 show the pressure and velocity results respectively:

Figure 3: Pressure results

Figure 4: Velocity results

2.4. 600r/min centrifugal pump Fluent simulation

The conditions are set as before. Figures 5 and 6 show the pressure and velocity results respectively:

4
ICEMCE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2450 (2023) 012031 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2450/1/012031

Figure 5: Pressure results

Figure 6: Velocity results

3. Numerical calculation results and analysis of pump cavitation

In this paper, the cavitation numerical simulation of a centrifugal pump at two speeds (1800r/min and
600r/min) is carried out, and the flow and cavitation in the pump are analyzed. Due to the action of a
volute, the area of low pressure of a blade is large, the cavitation phenomenon appears first and is the
most serious. With the increase in rotational speed, the maximum wind pressure increases, while the
maximum velocity decreases, and the maximum velocity vector decreases. From bottom to top, the
smallest percentage of vacuoles is blue, while the largest is red. When the inlet velocity is the same,
the outlet pressure is reduced by a certain proportion, so that the blade can produce cavitation. As can
be seen from the diagram, at the blade front of the volute, cavitation appears first and then cavitation.
At the blade entrance, all the vacuoles are concentrated at the edge of the impeller and extend outward
along the chord of the blade, and the holes are concentrated in the center of the blade surface. At this
time, cavitation is fully developed. As can be seen from the chart, in the whole process of cavitation
development, the volume fraction of cavitation at the blade outlet always stays blue, indicating that
there is no gasification phenomenon at this part.
Small rotating speed and the blade pressure area are not obvious under the condition of a small
range, with export pressure to reduce gradually, a low-pressure area larger, the emergence and
development of air-pocket, extending from impeller inlet edge to the middle, a low-pressure area in
the bubble, bubble drops rapidly after the peak, this is because the air bubbles in the water bubbles,
after arriving in higher places the demise of the bubble.
The flow condition of the impeller is more complex than the design condition, the area of the
cavitation area is larger than the design, and the degree of cavitation is more serious than the design,

5
ICEMCE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2450 (2023) 012031 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2450/1/012031

which indicates that the operation under the condition of high speed is harmful to the impeller
cavitation, so it should be avoided as far as possible in practical production.
The saturated vapor pressure below this temperature is the main reason for the cavitation inside the
centrifugal pump. Driven by the impeller, the impeller pushes the liquid forward. Here, the pressure of
the liquid is very high; at the same time, due to its internal relative motion and the effect of the axial
vortex, it accumulates on the rear surface of the blade, to reduce the pressure on the rear surface. In
this way, when the inlet pressure of the impeller decreases, the cavitation zone is generated at the tail
of the impeller, and the cavitation zone gradually increases.
At present, the research on the cavitation phenomenon in centrifugal pumps and the improvement
scheme proposed by the research of cavitation mechanism can be divided into two main categories:
liquid phase resistance to cavitation performance and structural optimization design. For the optimal
design of the structure, several countermeasures are put forward, such as opening the inlet side of the
blade, setting obstacles on the working face and designing a reasonable blade inclination Angle for a
centrifugal pump, which can improve the internal turbulence, optimize the flow field structure and
restrain cavitation phenomenon. The polymer added to the liquid can increase the viscosity of the
liquid and reduce the critical cavitation times of the liquid, effectively inhibiting the cavitation
phenomenon and reducing the generation of cavitation.

4. Conclusion
This paper uses SOLIDWORKS, ANSYS and other software to analyze it. Mainly from the theoretical
analysis, three-dimensional modeling, mesh division and numerical simulation, the flow field in the
centrifugal pump is post-processed and the following conclusions are drawn:
(1) Under the design condition of low speed, the cavitation characteristic of a centrifugal pump is
the best, while under the condition of high speed, its cavitation characteristic is poor, and the
cavitation phenomenon is easy to occur;
(2) By numerical simulation of cavitation characteristics under two working conditions (1800r/min
and 600r/min), the relationship between pressure, cavitation and cavitation is found, and the
development trend of cavitation is analyzed.
(3) The location of cavitation is consistent with the low-pressure area, but the peak of the stomatal
volume fraction is slightly later than the stomatal inlet. Since stomata are formed in the low-pressure
area and carried to the higher area by the airflow, the cavitation is broken.
(4) Due to the influence of volute, whether cavitation or not, the blade near the volute has a larger
area of low pressure than other blades, and the cavitation degree is more serious.

References
[1] Zhang Kewei. Principle of Fluid Machinery (Volume 1) [M]. Beijing: China Machine
Press,2001.
[2] Chen Xianpei. Numerical Analysis of Cavitation Performance of Siphon Drainage Pump and
Optimization Design of Pipeline Structure [D]. Qinhuangdao: Yanshan University,2021.
[3] Wang Yong, Liu Houlin, Yuan Shouqi, et al. CFD Simulation of cavitation characteristics in
a centrifugal pump [J]. Journal of Drainage and Irrigation Machinery Engineering, 2011.
29(2):99-103.
[4] Robert Talbot Knapp, James W.Daily, F.G Hammit. Cavitation and cavitation erosion [M].
Trans. Beijing: Water Conservancy Press, 1981.
[5] Chen Xiaochang. Study on the Influence of Balance Hole Leakage on Axial Force
Characteristics of Centrifugal Pump [D]. Lanzhou: Lanzhou University of
Technology,2017.