38 Feature

WORLD PUMPS March 2016

Pump performance

Effect of sealing
ring clearance on
pump performance
n order to research the effect of impeller sealing ring
I clearance on a centrifugal pump, external performance
and flow characteristics of the centrifugal pump were
analysed, to select a reasonable impeller sealing ring
gap size. Here are the findings.

Clearance of impeller sealing ring is the factors such as flow regime, compressi- clearance of wear-rings and the pump
main reason for the loss of leakage bility and eccentricity were considered. cavity was analyzed in detail. In
volume of a centrifugal pump. However, summary, although there are some
the analysis of the internal fluid flow in Matsumoto K etc.[6] have studied that research about the clearance of impeller
centrifugal pump and the prediction of through increasing the radial clearance sealing ring, however, there is little
performance of the pump generally of the impeller seal between the front research on how to select the reasonable
ignore the influence of impeller sealing pump cover and the pump body in the sealing ring clearance, under the premise
ring. But, the impeller sealing ring has low specific speed centrifugal pump to of considering the performance of the
great significance to the performance of increase the leakage, thereby reducing centrifugal pump.
the centrifugal pump, it will not only disc friction loss, in order to improve the
cause the loss of the volume of the overall efficiency of the pump. Will etc.[7] The clearance of impeller sealing ring
centrifugal pump, but also to change the proposed a simplified two dimensional was selected as the object of the
flow in the centrifugal pump[1]. model of the clearance of centrifugal research, numerical simulation method
pump for calculating, and the flow in the was used, to analyze the inner flow
At present, there are some achievements
in the research of impeller sealing ring:
Chen Y etc.[2] have studied the effect of
front clearance and behind clearance on
the performance of the pump, it was
concluded that the effect of front clear-
ance on the performance of the centrif-
ugal pump is large than behind
clearance. Wu D Z etc..[3] have studied
the effect of clearance of impeller wear-
rings on leakage loss and mechanical
efficiency of centrifugal pump. Toshio
etc.[4] used CFX-TASC Flow, the numerical
simulation of labyrinth seal was
proceeding, and the effect of leakage
flow and clearance flow on the force of
the rotor was analyzed. Rhode.[5]
discussed the gap flow in detail, various Figure 1. Model for calculation.

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WORLD PUMPS March 2016
Figure 2. Q-H curves of dierent gap sizes.
condition of impeller, and to discuss the
effect of clearance size on performance,
leakage and internal flow field of centrif-
ugal pump, on this basis, selecting the
reasonable sealing ring gap.
Calculation model and mesh
generation
IS80-65-160 single stage single suction
centrifugal pump was selected as the
research object, the three-dimension
diagram is shown in Figure 1, where b is
the impeller seal ring gap. The design
parameters: inlet diameter D1=80mm,
outlet diameter D2=168mm, blade
number Z=4, volume flow Q=50m3/h,
head H=32m, speed n=2900r/min.
Dividing the geometry into different
regions for mesh generation by ICEM,
centrifugal pump seal ring gap was
locally refined and the inner part of the
centrifugal pump was provided with
enough nodes to satisfy the requirement
of the calculation accuracy, then unstruc-
tured grids were used in each area, to
align the grid nodes of each part. Based
on the analysis of the influence of the
grid number on the calculation results, it
was found that the head and efficiency
of the numerical simulation were less
affected by the change of the number of
the grid after the grid number was
greater than 1.47 million. As a result, the
mesh number of model pump was
about 1.50 million.
Parameter setting
In order to investigate the influence of
different clearance variation on the
performance of the pump, 5 group of
gap width: b=0.15 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.7 mm
were selected for numerical calculation
under 5 different operating modes :
Q=0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4Qopt.
Figure 3. -H curves of dierent gap sizes.
In the process of numerical calculation,
the RNG k- model was selected for
turbulence model, multi reference coor-
dinate system was used to describe the
internal flow, and the rotating coordi-
nate system was adopted in the
impeller region. Boundary conditions
including: velocity entrance was set on
inlet; outflow was set on outlet;
standard wall function was used in the
near wall surface; non permeable and
non slip were taken in boundary condi-
tion of wall, momentum flux and
energy flux through the solid wall
surface are 0; the QUICK scheme with
two order accuracy was adopted, and
the pressure correction was SIMPLC
algorithm; the convergence accuracy of
the calculation process was set to
110-4, the external conditions are
normal temperature and pressure, and
the medium was water.
Hydraulic performance
analysis
Figure 2 is Q-H curves of different gap
sizes under five different flow conditions.
It shows, H reduces along with the Q
growth; and H also reduces in different
degree under each operating modes
along with the b growth, the changes
are not obvious when b is in a small
value between 0.15 mm and 0.2 mm,
but the changes become fiercer with the
increasing of b. The maximum variation
of H under five different conditions are
3.663 m, 4.2 3m, 3.928 m, 4.168 m, 1.696
m, the maximum variation of H under
the same conditions reaches about 4m.
But when b is equal 0.15 or 0.2mm, the
maximum variation of H under the
different conditions is about 0.5m.
Figure 3 is -H curves of different gap
sizes under five different flow conditions.
It shows reduces along with the Q
Feature 39
growth, and also reduces in different
degree under each operating modes
along with the b growth. The smaller
the gap, the higher the efficiency of the
pump, which shows that the reduction
of b can improve the volume efficiency
and total efficiency of the pump. The
changes are not obvious when b is in a
small value, but the changes become
more and more fierce with the
increasing of b. The maximum variation
of under five different conditions are
4.607%, 4.387%, 5.294%, 4.973%, 4.703%,
the maximum variation of H under the
same conditions reaches about 5%. But
when b is equal 0.15 or 0.2mm, the
maximum variation of under the
different conditions is about 1%.
Figure 4 is , H-b curves under design
conditions. It shows, with the increase of
b, H showed a clear downward trend. the
volume loss caused by liquid flow
through the front sealing ring increased
with the increase of b. The centrifugal
pump performance under design condi-
tions is affected by the changes of b.
With the increase of b, show a
tendency to decrease obviously, and the
general trend of the downward trend
was gradually decreased with the
increase of b. It means the leakage of
impeller seal ring gap increases along
with the b growth, which leads to the
decrease of . the maximum efficiency in
b=0.15mm, The changing trend of is
basically consistent with H, which verifies
the smaller b, the better performance of
the pump.
H and increase along with the b
decrease, and the liquid flow back to inlet
through the impeller begin to reduce,
making the leakage reduction, the energy
loss is also reduced, thus increasing the
volume efficiency of the impeller.
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40 Feature
Figure 4. , H-b curves under design conditions.
In summary, b has influence on the
performance of the pump, and when b
is greater than 0.3mm, H and begin to
decline significantly. when b=0.15~0.3
mm, little difference on the performance
parameters. But the smaller the B, the
more difficult to machine, when the b is
too small, it will lead to friction between
impeller and seal ring, it will seriously
affect the operation of centrifugal pump,
"The impeller sealing ring has great
signicance to the performance
of the centrifugal pump."
in considering the processing difficulty
and cost as well as both efficiency and
head, select a reasonable impeller
sealing ring gap size of 0.2 mm.
Leakage analysis
Due to the existence of differential pres-
sure at both ends of the impeller seal
ring gap, the gap is bound to leak,
resulting the pump capacity loss.
Impeller seal ring leakage is the main
volume loss in single-stage pump, it is
proportional to the theoretical head of
impeller. The volume loss caused by the
impeller seal ring gap under design
condition is not large, when b=0.2mm,
(a)b=0.15mm (b)b=0.2mm
Figure 6. Static pressure distribution on the section of Z = 0.
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Figure 5. Leakage ux-Q curves in ve gap sizes.
the result is 6.2%; when the flow
decreases, the volume loss increases
slightly, the calculation result is 8.9%
under 0.6Qopt condition.
Figure 5 is leakage flux-Q curves in five
gap sizes. It shows, the greater the B, the
greater the leakage will be generated in
the impeller seal ring, the overall curve
showed a rising trend, indicating that
the greater the B, the greater the
amount of leakage; the leakage of
impeller seal ring reduces along with the
Q growth under the same gap condition.
When b is smaller, the change trend of
the leakage flux is not obvious
compared with the large b.
Pressure eld analysis
In order to study the influence of the
clearance of impeller seal ring on the
inner flow field of centrifugal pump, the
radial surface Z = 0 was chosen as the
research object. It can be seen from the
front program, the total operating point
is 25, it is too large, so the design point
(c)b=0.3mm (d)b=0.5mm
WORLD PUMPS March 2016
of the flow conditions is selected to
carry out analysis and comparison.
Figure 6 is static pressure distribution on
the section of Z = 0 under different
clearance at design conditions. It shows
pressure distribution along with the
change of the gap size is not obvious,
the change of the pressure in each gap
is also basically in the same trend. When
b=0.3mm, the differential pressure at the
outlet is slightly reduced, indicating that
the selection of 0.3mm is reasonable.
Careful comparison shows that, with the
increase of B, the low pressure area in
the anterior chamber is enlarged to the
vortex chamber, The separation effect
between wall surface area of the water
absorption chamber and the main flow
area is obvious. It means the large the
gap, the more obvious effect of the high
pressure fluid from high pressure area on
the low pressure fluid in the inlet region.
Gap ow eld analysis
Figure 7 is velocity (left) and pressure
(right) distribution of different gap sizes
under design flow conditions.
Figure 7 left is velocity distribution of
different gap sizes, it shows high speed
fluid flow to the pump inlet through the
impeller sealing ring clearance under the
differential pressure between the pump
(e)b=0.7mm
 Feature 41
WORLD PUMPS March 2016

cavity and the impeller inlet, with the
increase of b, the velocity of fluid in the
gap increases gradually, and the velocity
gradient is uniform, and the flow state is
stable. when b increases to 0.7mm, the
fluid flow in the gap is unstable from the
graph, it shows that the leakage is more
serious when the gap is larger. That
means that in the range of processing, b
should be as small as possible. Because
the smaller the b, the smaller the flow
loss inside the gap, the smaller the
volume loss, and improve the efficiency
of the pump.
Figure 7 right is pressure distribution of
different gap sizes, it shows a number of
energy is obtained in the flow passage
when the liquid flows from the inlet to
the outlet of the impeller, and it shows
that the pressure increases with the
increase of impeller radius, the overall
change trend is uniform, but there is
some disturbances in b=0.5 mm. Overall,
the change trend of pressure and velocity
distribution is basically the same, so it is
better to choose smaller clearance value
to improve the efficiency of the pump.
Conclusion
With the increase of b, the and H of
the pump under different working
conditions show a tendency to decrease
obviously, and the general trend of the
downward trend was gradually
decreased with the increase of b.
The leakage increases along with the b
growth, and it decreases along with the
Q growth in the same gap condition.
When b is smaller, the change trend of
leakage with Q is not obvious compared
with the larger b.
The larger the gap, the more obvious is
the effect of the high pressure fluid from
high pressure area on the low pressure
fluid in the inlet region. When b is smaller,
the fluid velocity gradient in the gap is
uniform, when b increases to 0. 7mm, the
fluid flow in the gap is unstable.

The centrifugal pump impeller sealing

ring gap on the performance of the
centrifugal pump and the flow of the
state have a great impact, when
b=0.15~0.3 mm. There is little difference
on the performance parameters consid-
ering the processing difficulty and cost
(a) b=0.15mm
as well as both efficiency and head,
when selecting a reasonable impeller
sealing ring gap size of 0.2 mm.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the support of
National Science Foundation of China
(Grant N0.51476144) and the Zhejiang
(b) b=0.2mm
Province Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. LQ15E050005).

References
Please contact the author directly for full
references.

(c) b=0.3mm

Contact
Jiegang Mou
College of Mechanical Engineering,
Zhejiang University of Technology, PR China

(d) b=0.5mm Authors

Zhenfu Chen
College of Mechanical Engineering,
Zhejiang University of Technology, PR China
czf516905006@163.com

Yunqing Gu
Lecturer, College of Mechanical Engineering,
Zhejiang University of Technology, PR China

Tianxing Fan
(e) b=0.7mm College of Mechanical Engineering,
Zhejiang University of Technology, PR China

Figure 7. Velocity and pressure distribution of dierent gap sizes.

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