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Investigations on Flow Characteristics in Diffuser-Discharge-Channel of Volute Casing

The volute casing used in centrifugal pumps is efficient for the transformation of kinetic energy into pressure energy, however, its asymmetric hydraulic design makes the flow in diffuser-discharge-channel (DDC) inhomogeneous, resulting in unsatisfactory flow patterns. In this study, the unsteady numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the transient flow characteristics in DDC. The accuracy of numerical results is found to agree well with experimental performance and pressure fluctuations. It is observed that the flow in DDC is significantly uneven. At the elbow of DDC, the static pressure on the volute left side (VL) is larger than the volute right side (VR) due to the flow impact and flow separation respectively. Thereby, this high-pressure gradient induces the secondary flow on the cross sections of DDC. Further, there is an obvious dependency of pressure fluctuations in the discharge pipe on the strong interaction between the impeller and tongue, in which four small peaks and four large peaks can be observed. At each moment, the pressure on VL gradually decreases from the inlet of discharge pipe to the pump outlet, while it increases on VR, finally, two sides tend to be the same. The pressure fluctuation intensity gradually becomes equivalent-distributed. In particular, it should be noticed that the energy loss in the diffuser part is larger than the discharge pipe, which requires a redesign concerning hydraulic performance. This study can help to better understand the transient flow characteristics and provide guidance for reducing flow loss in the volute casing.