Numerical study on the influence of pre-swirl angle on internal flow characteristics of centrifugal pumps

The effect of inlet pre-swirl on the performance of a centrifugal pump is studied by numerical simulation. The governing equations are Navier–Stokes equations and the shear stress transport k–ω turbulence model. The numerical results show that the optimal operating point moves from the low flow region to the high flow region as the pre-swirl angle shifts from positive to negative. It is found by contours of Omega–Liutex that the positive pre-swirl angle is able to weaken the vortex on the blade suction and reduce the energy dissipation. On both the 0.5Q0 and 1.2Q0 operating conditions, the proportion of entropy production loss in the impeller and volute is about 60% and 30%, respectively. As the pre-swirl angle changes from negative to positive, the entropy production loss in the inlet and outlet pipes increases slowly, and the entropy production loss in the volute and impeller shows a decreasing trend and the peak area of entropy loss moves toward the outlet. Under the four pre-swirl angles, the main frequency is always the passing frequency of the blade. The pre-swirl angle affects the pressure fluctuation at the main frequency but has little effect at the secondary frequency. The change in velocity pulsation amplitude in the impeller in the positive pre-swirl angle is smaller than that in the negative pre-swirl angle. As a result, for the positive pre-swirl angle, the turbulent kinetic energy density in the impeller is low, and the energy loss is low, compared with negative pre-swirl. Under the low flow condition (0.5Q0), the change in velocity pulsation amplitude in the inertial range of the energy spectrum under negative pre-swirl is greater than that under positive pre-swirl.