A CFD validation study of a centrifugal pump stage, used in the water industry, was recently performed. The geometry of the pump was obtained from a CAD system and a detailed unstructured tetrahedral mesh with approximately 1.5M cells was utilized. The motion of the pump rotor was accounted for by the multiple reference frame (MRF) model, and turbulence effects were captured through the realizable k-e turbulence model. The MRF approach permitted the flowfield to be calculated in a steady-state manner, which is acceptable when the interaction between the rotor and the stator is small, as was assumed in this case. The use of robust second-order discretization schemes was also employed in this simulation.

CAD geometry of the water pump stage Courtesy of KSB

The CFD predictions were compared with a scaled model of the pump that was run using air as the working fluid. Experimental measurements were taken at a pump speed of 3000 rpm, with an airflow rate of 1632m ³ /hr. The numerical results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental findings. In FLUENT, the hydraulic efficiency was computed to be 0.967, which compared very favorably with the measured value of 0.964.

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