Numerical investigation of radial thrust fluctuation caused by diffuser rotating stall in a centrifugal pump

In this study, in order to understand the relation between the diffuser rotating stall and the fluctuating radial thrust, unsteady RANS simulation of a centrifugal pump was carried out. The rotating stall with single stall cell was qualitatively reproduced though the propagation speed was smaller than the experiment. The pressure amplitude caused by the rotating stall was comparable to the measured one, and the tendency that the propagation speed increases as the flow rate increases agreed with experiment. The radial thrust fluctuation due to the rotating stall was well evaluated by the simulation, and a considerable difference of phase angle between the stall cell position and the working direction of radial thrust was detected, which also agreed with experiment. On the basis of simulation result, the reason is found to be that the radial force acting on the impeller external wall at the liner ring section due to stall cell was not very small but comparable to that acting on the impeller blade and outer wall, while their working directions were roughly 100° different. This suggests that considering the leakage flow in numerical simulation is important to accurately predict the radial forces generated by rotating stall.