Centrifugal Pumps

Newly-Revised & Expanded!

Advances in Design, Performance, and Problem Solving

Course Overview

This course is designed to help engineers design, test, and run pumps and systems that are more effective, more economical, and more reliable. Engineers will come to understand the best state-of-the-art design practices and learn the latest theories on performance, cavitation, dynamic forces, and noise. The course will review the latest advances in design tools and will provide expert and relevant instruction to designers on pump design optimization.

The course begins with an extensive survey of the current technology base for pump design, covering impellers, diffusers, volutes, and other flow elements. The limitations on pump operation and range due to stall and other instabilities are described. Special attention is given to problems and design issues specifically associated with pump flows, namely cavitation, unsteady flow, and vibration. The analysis of stress and vibration in centrifugal pumps will be covered in detail.

Emphasis is placed on modern methods available to the pump designer for blade layout and design, using flexible geometric techniques associated with hydrodynamic loading calculations and the computational fluid dynamic analysis of pump flows. The advantages and limitations of such analyses are reviewed thoroughly by the instructor.

Program Outline

• Foundations of Pump Design - The Diverse World of Pumps
• Essentials of Turbomachinery Performance (a review session of fundamentals)
• Design Session 1 - hand calculations by students
• Impeller Modeling 1 - 1D Modeling issues; slip, recirculation, secondary flow
• Impeller Modeling 2 - Understanding the full 3D viscous flow process
• Impeller Modeling 3 - Core models and their utility
• Diffuser Modeling and Design - when to use a diffuser; vaneless, airfoil and channel
• Design Session 2 - Layout of three (3) stage pump illustrating all common elements; historic data usage
• Volutes and Return Channels - Purposes; design principles; design data
• The Design Process 1 - Organizing the process for design and choosing tools
• The Design Process 2 - shaping blades and vanes for best performance
• Design Session 3 - Detailed blading design of first stage including live CFD
• Stress and Deflections - class example included
• Vibration and Life - class example included
• Stability, recirculation and cavitation
• Design Session 4 - Volute design with CFD; multistage design matters; intro to Multi-Disciplinary Optimization (MDO)
• a.  Leakage and thrust; b.  Results of MDO
• Rotordynamics for Pumps - rotor response, bearings, seals, etc...
• Laboratory Procedures - setting up for test; instrument selection; data handling
• Data modeling and Technology Building - converting raw data into advanced design models

What You Will Learn

• Where the pump design process begins
• What the trade-offs are in any design process
• What challenges face today’s pump designers, as related to fluid dynamics and mechanical behavior of pump operation
• How modern design techniques can improve performance and reduce engineering costs
• How to interpret performance data
• What cavitation is and how to control it
• How advanced computer software can be used to improve the process of pump design and selection
• What unusual pump performance problems are being studied today

Materials

Participants receive a copy of Centrifugal Pump Design and Performance by David Japikse - et al. This book is a durable reference of lasting value to all pump engineers.

Instructors

Dr. David Japikse received his masters and doctoral degrees at Purdue University. He founded Concepts ETI in 1980 and guided the company as President until 2000 when he led the acquisition of NREC’s consulting and engineering software business. He currently serves as Concepts NREC’s Chairman of the Board. He has been responsible for many activities in centrifugal pump design, consulting, and research, and has developed a number of innovative design techniques. Dr. Japikse has also published extensively and teaches regularly. He has received many awards including the James Harry Potter Gold Medal from ASME for “…innovative, pioneering contributions in the field of thermodynamics as applied to turbomachinery design.” He is a Fellow in the ASME and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Mr. Robert Pelton is a Senior Engineer at Concepts NREC and has extensive aerodynamic design experience in a broad range of centrifugal flow pump and compressor applications, including blowers and turbopumps. He also has experience in meanline, quasi-3D, and CFD analysis.

Course registration