The study of the k-ε turbulence model for numerical simulation of centrifugal pump

k-ε Turbulence model have been widely used for the numerical simulation of centrifugal pump. It includes the standard k-ε model, the renormalization group (RNG) k-ε model and the Realizable k-ε model. In order to examine their applicability, a series of steady numerical simulations of centrifugal pump at the design point and at eight off-design points were carried out with these three kinds of turbulence models. During the simulations, the influence of the changes on the relative position between the impeller and volute was also considered each simulation. And the impeller/volute interaction was roundly reflected. According to the results obtained, the water head, shaft power and efficiency were calculated and the simulated performance curves of a centrifugal pump were compared with the experimental performance curves. It was confirmed that all these three models were suitable for the numerical simulation of the internal flow inside a centrifugal pump. And especially the result of the numerical simulation from the Realizable k-ε model had a best agreement with the experimental result