Simulation of performance characteristics of centrifugal pumps by the electro-hydrodynamic analogy method

Abstract

Tlie paper specifies the model of oil pipeline centrifugal pump, made on the basis of electro-hydrodynamic analogy method and designed to calculate performance characteristics of the hydraulic machine according to its catalogue data depending on the change of the flow rate and the rotational speed of the pump impeller considering the physical properties of the fluid (its density and kinematic viscosity). The article offers a presentation of mechanical losses as a nonlinear active resistance, the value of which is a quadratic function of the flow rate of a centrifugal pump. This enabled the authors to obtain the formulae for calculating pressure characteristics, power consumed by the driving motor shaft and the machine efficiency depending on the change of flow rate. There is made an investigation of the established operation inodes of main pipeline pumps of NM series by constructing a set of performance characteristics with different values of impeller rotational speed. Performance characteristics of the main pump NM-7000-210 have been calculated and the pump has shown a high convergence of calculated and characteristics obtained experimentally. The offered model of a centrifugal pump is easily adaptable to modem interactive computer-based tools (SIMULINK, 20SIM, PSPICE, etc.) assigned for simulation of operation modes of mechatronic engineering systems, which include pumping stations of main oil pipelines. This method of simulation contributes to the theoretical analysis and optimization of the oil pipeline centrifugal pump efficiency.