Simulation of performance characteristics of centrifugal pumps by the electro-hydrodynamic analogy method

Abstract

The paper specifies the model of oil pipeline centrifugal pump, made on the basis of electro-hydrodynamic analogy method
and designed to calculate performance characteristics of the hydraulic machine according to its catalogue data depending on the
change of the flow rate and the rotational speed of the pump impeller considering the physical properties of the fluid (its density
and kinematic viscosity). The article offers a presentation of mechanical losses as a nonlinear active resistance, the value of
which is a quadratic function of the flow rate of a centrifugal pump. This enabled the authors to obtain the formulae for
calculating pressure characteristics, power consumed by the driving motor shaft and the machine efficiency depending on the
change of flow rate. There is made an investigation of the established operation modes of main pipeline pumps of NM series by
constructing a set of performance characteristics with different values of impeller rotational speed. Performance characteristics of
the main pump NM-7000-210 have been calculated and the pump has shown a high convergence of calculated and characteristics
obtained experimentally. The offered model of a centrifugal pump is easily adaptable to modern interactive computer-based tools
(SIMULINK, 20SIM, PSPICE, etc.) assigned for simulation of operation modes of mechatronic engineering systems, which
include pumping stations of main oil pipelines. This method of simulation contributes to the theoretical analysis and optimization
of the oil pipeline centrifugal pump efficiency.