Effects of mesh style and grid convergence on numerical simulation accuracy of centrifugal pump

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effects of mesh generation techniques and grid convergence on pump performance in centrifugal pump model, three widely used mesh styles including structured hexahedral, unstructured tetrahedral and hybrid prismatic/tetrahedral meshes were generated for a centrifugal pump model. And quantitative grid convergence was assessed based on a grid convergence index (GCI), which accounts for the degree of grid refinement. The structured, unstructured or hybrid meshes are found to have certain difference for velocity distributions in impeller with the change of grid cell number. And the simulation results have errors to different degrees compared with experimental data. The GCI-value for structured meshes calculated is lower than that for the unstructured and hybrid meshes. Meanwhile, the structured meshes are observed to get more vortexes in impeller passage. Nevertheless, the hybrid meshes are found to have larger low-velocity area at outlet and more secondary vortexes at a specified location than structured meshes and unstructured meshes.

Keywords

mesh style / grid convergence index (GCI) / numerical simulation / particle image velocimetry (PIV) / centrifugal pump

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