Characteristics of Gas-Liquid Transport Flow through an Axial Flow Impeller

To elucidate transport properties of gas-liquid two-phase flows with small initial void fractions in pump impeller, based on Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations and standard k-epsiv turbulent model, flow simulation in an axial flow pump impeller was carried out under different operating conditions. Hydrostatic pressure and void fraction distributions were obtained and analyzed respectively. The results demonstrate that large flow rate makes the pressure distributions get uniform, but local high hydrostatic pressure gradient do not varies with the flow rate. And when initial void fraction reaches 10%, pressure discrepancy between blade pressure and suction surfaces becomes smaller and gas phase distribute unevenly with increased flow rate. Furthermore, pump performance gets worse compared with that under smaller initial void fractions.