Hydroacoustics in centrifugal pumps

Content
Project description - Contact person - Cooperation / Funding

Project description

Development and validation of a hydroacoustic method to characterise the pressure pulsation excitation by centrifugal pumps and its interaction with the connected piping system

The aim of the project is the one-dimensional, system-independent description of the pulsations excited by the pump as well as the transmission and reflection properties of the pump. For this purpose, the centrifugal pump test rig available at HSM (RU Bochum) with a centrifugal pump of nq = 12 min-1 is used as an example. A hydroacoustic methodology^1,2 previously developed at the Chair of Fluidics (TU Dortmund) is extended and adapted for this purpose. The method is based on a 1D characteristic method. In it, the pulsation excitation of a pump is modelled by a monopole and dipole system and the transmission property is described by a geometric model in conjunction with an effective sound velocity. The pump-specific parameters of the model are previously determined metrologically by high temporal resolution pressure measurements in the vicinity of the pump. In addition to testing the method on the Bochum test rig, an extension to a virtual test rig consisting of the 3D model of the pump and a 1D model of the plant is being carried out. Through the combined experimental-numerical approach (transient pressure measurements, 3D/1D CFD, possibly FEM), the real and idealised excitation can be compared and thus conclusions drawn about, for example, the stiffness influence of the pump housing (eff. sound velocity within the pump). As a result that can be used by the industry, recommendations for the determination of the system-independent pulsation excitations by centrifugal pumps are documented in the final report.

¹Lehr, C.; Linkamp, A.; Brümmer, A.: Simulations and experimental investigations on the acoustic characterisation of centrifugal pumps of different specific speed. In: Int. J. Turbomach. Propuls. Power 2019, 4(3), 16; DOI:10.3390/ijtpp4030016.
² Lehr, C.; Linkamp, A.; Brümmer, A.: Druckpulsationen in instationär betriebenen hydraulischen Systemen. report number: 01158341, TIB University Library, Hannover, 2019; DOI:10.2314/KXP:1667387111.