Computational fluid dynamics of left ventricular assist device under unsteady flow

Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) in this study is a mechanical tool that is used to support blood flow in the patient with heart disease. It supports left ventricle by building up the pressure to the pump outlet connected to the aorta. This pump was designed based on the magnetic driven centrifugal pump with a unique small washout hole constructed inside the impeller to generate the washout flow passage to prevent the stagnation at the region underneath and around the rotor. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was adopted in this study to assess the performance and optimize the design to avoid recirculation and high shear stress which is the main cause of stagnation and blood damage. Transient simulation was used for this study due to the asymmetric design of the washout hole and the complication of the bottom support of the impeller that have a risk of thrombosis, also, it was used to predict the variation of hydraulic performance caused by the rotation of the impeller and pulsed flow at the pump inlet. The simulation results show no excessive stress and no recirculation observed within the computational domain; in addition, the research result also provided information for further optimization and development to the pump.     

Numerical simulation on centrifugal pump compressible flow field with different gas volume fractions

In order to study the influence of gas-liquid two phase flow to a centrifugal pump perfor mance and internal flow patterns, the steady three dimensional flow with different gas volume fractions is simulated by applying the Reynolds average N-S equation and mixture gas-liquid two phase flow model, and the compressibility of gas is taken into consideration in the simulation. Then we emphatically analyzed the centrifugal pump characteristic and the gas distribution law in different gas volume fractions. The computational results show that gas volume fraction has a certain influence on the performance of the centrifugal pump, and the efficiency and head of the pump are on the decline with the increase of it. Static pressure in the impeller increases in the radial direction, but the pressure gradient in the flow direction is different under the different gas volume fractions. The gas volume is distributed mainly in the ipsilateral direction of impeller back shroud in the flow channel of the volute. On the suction side of the blade inlet there is an obvious low pressure area, which causes bubbles agglutination and higher gas volume fraction. With the gas entering passage flow, gas volume fraction in the suction decreases and the pressure surface rises gradually. Higher gas volume fraction causes air blocking phenomenon in the flow passage and the discharge capacity reduces. The increase of gas volume makes the turbulent motion within the impeller more and more intense, which leads to more and more energy loss.     

Pressure pulsation in stages ofelectric submersible pump at shut-off under various speeds

Electric submersible pumps were widely used in agricultural fields, petroleum and various other industries. The pressure pulsation caused fatigue failure due to vibration in electric submersible pump and affects the life and performance of its system. The objective of this study was to experimentally investigate the characteristics of pressure pulsation which were generated at various stages of a multistage electric submersible pump during closed valve operation at different speeds. An electric submersible pump with five stages was selected for conducting experiments. A variable frequency drive(VFD)was used to operate the electric submersible pump at five different speed settings from 40 to 60 Hz. Piezoresistive pressure transducers were mounted at each stage of the electric submersible pump to capture the unsteady pressure signals. At each speed setting, the electric submersible pump was operated at the shut-off condition and the signals of unsteady pressure from all the five stages were captured. A fast fourier transformation(FFT)was carried out on the pressure signals to convert into frequency domain. From the spectra of pressure pulsation signals, the characteristics of pressure pulsation are obtained for each stage and for various speed settings which are then used to understand its variation with speed and stages.     

Experimental study on movement of particles in centrifugal impeller

The slurry pump is the key component of a dredger. Solid particles have strong influence on the performance of a slurry pump. The movement of solid particles in a centrifugal impeller was studied using particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement. The experiments were conducted in a dredging pump model at Hohai University. Some transparent glass spheres with diameter of 02-04 mm were used as solid particles. The concentration and relative velocities of the particles were analyzed to investigate the particle trajectory. The results show that the concentration of the particles on the pressure surfaces of the blades is higher than on the suction surfaces, and the particles tend to move towards the suction surfaces. Moreover, the particles have faster relative velocities than the liquid phase through the flow channels of the impeller.     

CFD studies of scraper built in SPA clarifying tank based on mixture solid-liquid two-phase flow model

In the industrial process of producing the strong phosphoric acid (SPA), clarification of the solution is essential to the ultimate product. However, the large viscosity of sediment and the induced interface interaction result in difficulties when the SPA is clarified. CFD numerical methodology is applied to simulate internal flow field and performance of the low speed scraper based on Mixture solid liquid two phase flow model. Sediment deposition is generated by loading solid particles at the bottom of clarifying vessel. The moving mesh and RNG k-ε model are used to simulate the rotational turbulent flow in clarifying tank. Variables studied, amongst others, are the scraper rotation speed and the mounting height, which can affect the solid suspension height. Features of flow field and solid volume fraction distribution in computational domain are presented and analyzed. The numerical reports of the scraper torque and velocities of inlet and outlet filed are obtained. It seems the torque value of rotational axis and particle suspending height augment with an increasing rotating speed. Meanwhile, a high revolving speed is good for the deposition discharge. The particle fraction distribution in meridional surface and horizontal surface at fixed rotation speed are analyzed to determine the corresponding optimal installation height. The simulating results reflect the flow field is marginally stirred by the scraper and proper working parameters are obtained, in which case the comprehensive properties of the scraper and the clarifying tank are superior.     

Adaptability research of hydrofoil surface water injection on cavitation suppression

To study the effectiveness of hydrofoil surface water injection on cavitation suppression,the unsteady cavitation flow field around the NACA0066 hydrofoil at attack angle of 6°was simulated by the modified RNG k-εturbulence model combined with the full-cavitation model.The structure of cavitation flow field and the hydrodynamic performance of hydrofoil were analyzed at the cavitation number of 0.85,0.70,0.55,respectively.The results show that barriered by the jet,the momentum of the reentrant jet was reduced;The development of cavitation and the strength of cavity shedding were weakened to some extent.Cavitation suppression effect was very obvious in the cavitation conditions with the cavitation number of 0.7 and above when the injection position was at 37% chord length from the hydrofoil leading edge and the jet-flow ratio kept 0.3.Time-averaged lift and drag coefficient were reduced,and the lift-drag ratio increased in water injection conditions.     

Analysis of flow response to fluctuation ofrotational speed in a radial impeller

By discretizing the convection terms with AUSM+ up scheme in the rotating coordinate system, a finite volume analysis code based on multi block structured grids was developed indepen dently so as to realize the numerical solving of internal flow fields of turbomachineries. Taking an unshrouded radial impeller with the working fluid of water vapour as the research object, the flow response to the fluctuation of rotational speed was calculated. By comparing the surface pressure profiles and velocity contours calculated by the code and commercial software respectively, the accuracy of flow solver was verified. The analysis of flow response data indicates that, as the wor king condition shifts closer towards the surge boundary, the response of flow parameters such as mass flow and aerodynamic torque will be more nonsynchronous with the fluctuation of rotational speed, and also the influence of density variation on mass flow variation will be smaller. Moreover, the transient variation region of working condition performance will deviate farther away from the steady performance curve as the working condition approaches the surge boundary. Compared to the working conditions with small mass flows, the distribution characteristics of pressure difference load on the blade surface vary little under large mass flow conditions. The reduction of fluctuation amplitude of rotational speed exerts no influence on abating the hysteresis of flow response.     

Effects of silt particle on cavitation flow in centrifugal pump

Based on numerical method,effects of silt particle with certain silt mean diameter and silt concentration on the evolution of cavitation in a centrifugal pump were studied. Silt mean diameter 0. 005 mm and silt concentration 1.0% were adopted in numerical simulations. Cavitation flow in a flatnosed cylinder was simulated to validate the designed algorithm. Cavitaton flows of water and silt-laden water were simulated and compared. The results indicate that the silt particles promote the evolution of cavitation. At the outlet pressure of 6.0×10~5 Pa,cavitation bubbles do not exist in the water flow,but a few cavitation bubbles appeare in the silt-laden water flow,demonstrating the silt particles induce the formation of cavitation bubbles. At the outlet pressure of 5.29×10~5 Pa,the vapor volume fraction in the silt-laden water flow is much larger than that in the water flow,indicating that the silt particles enhance the evolution of cavitation. The properties of silt particle,static pressure,flow field structure,turbulent kinetic energy and density difference have a close relationship with the evolution of cavitation.     

Influence of long and short guide vanes on hydraulic performance of water-jet pump

Different guide vane structures will affect the flow inside the pump,and then affect the transformation of the pressure energy and kinetic energy,and change the velocity distribution of the pump outlet.In order to study the influence of long and short guide vanes on the water-jet pump,on the basis of conventional design,eight schemes of guide vane with different vertical heights were designed in the method of computational fluid dynamics for numerical calculation,the performance curve of water-jet pumps with different long and short guide vanes was obtained,and finally the influence of different guide vanes on hydraulic performance and internal flow was analyzed.The results show that all of schemes reducing the height of blade can improve the head and efficiency.In the schemes reducing the height on the shroud,the guide vanes that the height of the blade is equal to the height difference between hub and shroud in impeller have the highest head and efficiency.In all schemes decreasing the blade height,with the increase of the height difference,the velocity increases gradually and the distribution of turbulence kinetic energy becomes more reasonable in the guide vane outlet.The schemes reducing the height on the hub have more reasonable distribution of velocity and turbulence kinetic energy according to schemes reducing the height on the shroud.The guide vanes of long and short blades can be used to stagger the position of the diffusion flow generated by adjacent blades,which can reduce the effect of the velocity circulation and make the flow of the outlet position more stable.     

Optimal Design of Vortex Pump Using Approximate Model and the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm北大核心CSCD

【Objective】The cavity width L, blade width b2 and the number of blades Z are the most important geometric parameters affecting the performance of vortex pump. This paper aims to present a method to optimize the vortex pump. 【Method】The study was based on approximate model and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II), in which the pump cavity length, blade width and the number of blades were calculated using the central composite design of DoE (design of experiment). The performance of the designed pump was examined using CFD, and the effect of L, b2 and Z on vortex pump efficiency and shear stress on the blade wall was calculated using the Kriging model. The NSGA-II was used to optimize the geometric parameters.【Result】The optimal parameters calculated from the methods were L=25 mm, Z=8, b2=26.45 mm.【Conclusion】We proved that CFD and NSGA-II can be used in a combination to calculate the optimal parameters of the vortex pump, and they can significantly improve efficiency of the pump and reduce the shear stress on the blade. Our results revealed that the optimization can reduce the width of the non-blade cavity by 16.67%, and increase the number of blades of the impeller and the outlet width of the blade by 1 and 25.95% respectively. At the design flow rate, the optimal design increased pump efficiency by 1.06% and reduced the average shear stress on the blade from 274.37 Pa to 204.57 Pa. The optimal design made the shear stress on the blade more uniform, in addition to reducing the shear stress on the outlet of the blade. © 2019 Authors. All rights reserved.