CFD Investigation on Three Turbulence Models for Centrifugal Pump Application

Abstract

This paper highlight the influence of three numerical turbulence models on the convergence and the performance of flow simulation. The computational comparative study was realized using the COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5 code. Turbulence was generated numerically in a centrifugal water pump using the k−ϵ, k−ω and k−ω SST models. However, the geometry was performed on SolidWorks due to its complexity. The flow modelling was mainly based on the resolution of the stationary Navier—Stokes equations. The effects of the tested models on CFD numerical simulation were examined. It was found that the best calculation precision was obtained using the K−ω model, while the lowest was provided by the K−ω SST model. However, a very low calculation cost was obtained by the latter. As well as better pumping performance were recorded.

Keywords

• Turbulence models
• Fluid flow simulation
• Centrifugal pump