Experimental and Numerical Study on Vortical Structures and Their Dynamics in a Pump Sump

0559028 - ÚT 2023 RIV CH eng J - Journal Article
Uruba, Václav - Procházka, Pavel P. - Sedlář, M. - Komárek, M. - Duda, D.
Experimental and Numerical Study on Vortical Structures and Their Dynamics in a Pump Sump.
Water. Roč. 14, č. 13 (2022), č. článku 2039. E-ISSN 2073-4441
Institutional support: RVO:61388998
Keywords : pump sump * suction pipe * vortical structure * particle image velocimetry * mathematical modeling
OECD category: Applied mechanics
Impact factor: 3.4, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/water/water-14-02039/article_deploy/water-14-02039-v2.pdf?version=1656560682

Research on water flow in a pump inlet sump is presented. The main effort has been devoted to the study of the vortical structures' appearance and their behavior. The study was conducted in a dedicated model of the pump sump consisting of a rectangular tank 1272 x 542 x 550 mm(3) with a vertical bellmouth inlet 240 mm in diameter and a close-circuit water loop. Both Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and experimental research methods have been applied. The advanced unsteady approach has been used for mathematical modeling to capture the flow-field dynamics. For experiments, the time-resolved Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method has been utilized. The mathematical modeling has been validated against the obtained experimental data, the main vortex core circulation is captured within 3%, while the overall flow topology is validated qualitatively. Three types of vortical structures have been detected: surface vortices, wall-attached vortices and bottom vortex. The most intense and stable is the bottom vortex, the surface and wall-attached vortices are found to be of random nature, both in their appearance and topology, they appear intermittently in time with various topologies. The dominant bottom vortex is relatively steady with weak, low-frequency dynamics, typical frequencies are up to 1 Hz. The origin of the vorticity of all large vortical structures is identified in the pump propeller rotation.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0332775