Theoretical, numerical and experimental investigation of centrifugal pumps in reverse operation

When a pump works as a turbine, its hydraulic behavior will be changed. Several methods have been developed to predict the best efficiency of pumps running as turbines but their results are not in good coincidence with experimental data for all pumps. Therefore, study and investigation of hydraulic behavior of pumps in reverse operation can be useful. In this study, the best efficiency point of an industrial centrifugal pump running as turbine was achieved using a theoretical analysis. This method tries to estimate hydraulic components of reverse (turbine) mode using direct (pump) mode. In the next step, the pump was simulated in direct and reverse modes by computational fluid dynamics. 3D full Navier-Stokes equations were solved using FineTurbo V.7 flow solver. Using numerical results, complete characteristic curves of the pump in direct and reverse modes were obtained. For experimental verification of theoretical and numerical results, the pump was tested as a turbine in a test rig. All required parameters were measured to achieve complete characteristic curves of the reverse pump. The theoretical and numerical results were compared with experimental data and some other methods.