闫思娜, 王净净, 冯建军, et al. Study on influence of inlet gas volume fraction on inter-stage characteristics of multistage gas-liquid centrifugal pumps[J]. Journal of Hydroelectric Engineering, 2025, (11).
闫思娜, 王净净, 冯建军, et al. Study on influence of inlet gas volume fraction on inter-stage characteristics of multistage gas-liquid centrifugal pumps[J]. Journal of Hydroelectric Engineering, 2025, (11). DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20251101.
Multistage centrifugal mixed-flow pumps are commonly used to transport high-pressure gas-liquid two-phase fluids. However
gas pockets often develop in the impeller section of such pumps due to gas-phase compressibility and the inter-phase slip velocity
and cause uneven flow distribution with inconsistent pressure-boosting capabilities across pump stages. This study presents experimental tests on two systems of 3-stage and 25-stage centrifugal pumps
and examines the influence of inlet gas volume fraction (IGVF) on the inter-stage characteristics. We apply an Euler-Euler inhomogeneous flow model to simulate the 3-stage system for conditions of different gas compressibilities. The results show that at single water phase conditions
pressure rises nearly the same across different impellers. For gas-liquid conditions
the overall pressure-boosting capacity decreases significantly with the increasing IGVF
with the secondary and final-stage impellers outperforming the first stage. Gas accumulation intensifies in the impeller passages
spreading along the suction sides of the blades up to the outlet. Velocity threshold analysis reveals that velocity-area ratio decreases stage by stage at the low thresholds
while increases progressively at the medium thresholds
indicating an enhanced impeller pressurization. For gas-liquid conditions
pulsating entropy generation losses are primarily concentrated near the impeller inlet and diffuser inlet. This study lays a basis for optimizing the design of multistage mixed-flow pumps.