Calculation of Flow Induced Vibration Amplitudes of Radial Sewage Water Pumps

The extreme vibrations of sewage water pumps with single-blade impellers are induced mainly by interaction of the flow in the impeller and the casing. The resulting periodically unsteady forces affect the impeller and produce radial deflections of the pump shaft. These oscillations of the rotor are transferred to the pump casing and attached pipes. They can be recognized as vibrations at the bearing blocks or at the pump casing. The present contribution describes the investigation of the transient flow in a sewage water pump. The three-dimensional, viscous, unsteady flow in a pump with a single blade impeller is determined by numerical simulation. After that the hydrodynamic stimulation forces are calculated from the so known transient flow field. The forces can be classified into pressure and friction forces. The pressure forces usually exceed the friction forces on several orders of magnitude. A separate view on the fluid-wetted impeller surfaces shows that the pressure forces acting on the blade are clearly larger than the forces at the hub and at the shroud. So they are decisive for the vibration amplitudes of single-blade sewage water pumps. By a following dynamic analysis of the pump rotor using a commercial Finite-Element-Method (FEM) the resulting vibration amplitudes are determined for several operating points. With the known pressure field and the calculated vibration amplitudes the vibration behavior of sewage water pumps can be influenced during the design by changing the relevant construction parameters.Copyright © 2003 by ASME