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Abstract
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Centrifugal pumps play a crucial role in various industries such as chemical and power generation plants, consuming a significant portion of energy. This research investigates the performance improvement of a single-stage centrifugal pump through impeller revamping, focusing not only on flow rate and efficiency enhancement but also on secondary flow mitigation. Moreover, the original impeller with a 210 mm diameter was revamped to the maximum allowable diameter of 250 mm. Subsequently, the simulation was conducted by a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method to analyze flow dynamics using the Shear Stress Transport k-ω turbulence model. The redesign not only adheres to the first goal, which was flow rate revamping, but also sets a benchmark for energy consumption modifications by secondary flow mitigation in industrial applications. The investigation was validated with less than 3% error in the head prediction. The results demonstrate that the new revamped impeller attained a higher head from 50.9 m to 65.66 m, and also the flow rate increased from 0.02 m3 s−1 to 0.0325 m3 s−1. Apart from that, the secondary flow formation was mitigated in the revamped impeller, resulting in minimizing energy losses attributed to turbulence kinetic energy (TKE).
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