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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Phys.
Sec. Fluid Dynamics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2024.1498648
This article is part of the Research Topic Dynamics of Complex Fluids View all 5 articles

Influence of speed on the internal flow characteristics of a multiphase pump based on a coupled CFD-PBM model

Provisionally accepted
Xin Guo Xin Guo *SHI Guangtai SHI Guangtai Hongqiang Chai Hongqiang Chai Wenjuan Lv Wenjuan Lv Jie Fu Jie Fu
  • Xihua University, Chengdu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Under the influence of the characteristic behavior of the bubbles, the flow pattern in the multiphase pump suffers a serious deterioration and the pressurization performance is significantly reduced. In order to be more close to the engineering practice, the CFD-PBM (Computational Fluid Dynamics-Population Balance Model) coupling model is established and verified on the basis of considering the bubble coalescence and breakup behavior, revealing the bubble distribution characteristics in the pressurization unit, and studying the influence of speed on the internal flow characteristics of the multiphase pump. The results show that the volume fraction of large bubbles in the pressurization unit of the multiphase pump decreases significantly with increasing speed, and the bubble coalescence zone shrinks parallel to the blade profile along the flow direction. The volume fraction of small bubbles increases sharply with speed, and the bubble breakup zone covers almost the entire fluid domain at high speed conditions. The speed has a significantly greater influence on the distribution of the gas phase and the vortex structure in the diffuser domain than in the impeller domain. In the diffuser domain, a pair of mutually separate vortices are formed, and a large number of gas phases are sucked near the vortex center. With the increase of speed, the velocity slip in impeller domain is weakened, but in diffuser domain is intensified. The results of the study can accurately predict the performance variation of the multiphase pump and are important for their optimal design and engineering application.

    Keywords: Multiphase pump1, CFD-PBM coupling model 2, Bubble distribution 3, Speed 4, Internal flow characteristic 5

    Received: 19 Sep 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Guo, Guangtai, Chai, Lv and Fu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xin Guo, Xihua University, Chengdu, China

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