Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 19962003

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Experimental and FEM failure analysis and optimization

of a centrifugal-pump volute casing
Mona Golbabaei Asl a,*, Rouhollah Torabi b, S. Ahmad Nourbakhsh a
a
b

Hydraulic Machinery Research Institute, Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tehran, P.O. Box: 11155-4563, Tehran, Iran
EBARA Pumps Machinery Company (EPMC), P.O. Box: 15875-7653, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 21 September 2008
Received in revised form 17 January 2009
Accepted 2 February 2009
Available online 10 February 2009
Keywords:
Cast iron
Finite Element Analysis
Pump failures
Stress analysis
Structural optimizations

a b s t r a c t
Material and geometry are two key factors in ideal mechanical performance of centrifugalpump casings engaged in high pressures.
This paper presents the model generation, static structural analysis, and geometrical
modications performed for a failed volute casing of a real centrifugal-pump. Failure would
be examined under hydrostatic test conditions. Finite Element Method is employed in
stage of theoretical problem investigation.
To control failure phenomenon, necessary geometrical modications are applied to the
model. Geometrical modications must have the least effect on hydraulic performance
and avoid excessive manufacturing costs.
Finally, some test volute casings with new geometry would be built to experimentally
validate the analytical results and inspect the hydraulic performance.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The history of study and research about pump casing goes back to pump design. Pump and its components must have
reliable performance without any leakage. In particular Casing analysis is essential for special pumps in oil industry, aerospace, power plants, etc. For instance, Rezvani et al. [1] executed structural analysis and evaluation of a mixer pump at the
Hanford Site. Rosu and Vasiliu [2] did research on the main components of a positive displacement pump by FEM.1 Shannon
[3] performed structural analysis for volute housing of high pressure oxidizer preburner pump in the space shuttle main engine. Lienau and Welschinger [4] studied the deformation in HPDM pumps by FEM. They also optimized a large pump casing
with similar approaches [5].
Generally, optimum hydraulic design and proper material are two key factors for reliable pump performance. However,
material cost may burden their use for conventional pumps. The use of common cast iron has already been shown to reduce
fabrication cost. This is due to the fact that cast iron is low cost and offers a competitive manufacturing process in mass
production.
The casings of centrifugal-pumps are usually made of a volute shell with two nozzles for supplying and removing the
pumped uid. The pump is divided along its peripheral volute path into areas with high and low ow capacity. The cross
area of the volute passage of pump casings at the periphery of impeller is determined from ow capacity and on the basis
of technological considerations, whereas, the wall has a constant thickness. It should be borne in mind that geometry of casings differs in details with pump type, number of stages, suction and discharge positions, and other parameters. The loading
conditions are determined from the internal pressure typical of the service conditions of hydraulic test. The strength of the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 218 2084815; fax: +98 218 8338648.
E-mail addresses: M.Golbabaie@gmail.com, mgolbabaie@ut.ac.ir (M. Golbabaei), r.torabi@ebarairan.com (R. Torabi), anour@ut.ac.ir (S.A. Nourbakhsh).
1
Finite Element Method.
1350-6307/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2009.02.006

M. Golbabaei Asl et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 19962003

1997

casing depends not only on the casing load, geometrical parameters, and material, but also on the temperature of water
which characterizes its corrosion activity [6].
In this paper we focus on optimization of a real failed volute pump for its reliability. This is mainly due to the fact that
some extreme conditions of operation like corrosive uid will lead to relatively high stress. This possibly makes the pump
unreliable to operate if the stress is beyond material strength due to brittle nature of cast iron. In order to ensure pumps
high reliability, there is a need to predict the mechanical capability of pump casing and optimize its geometric dimensional
design. The results presented include comparisons of computational and experimental work.
2. Description of the pump
The volute casing belongs to a centrifugal-pump with single axial suction and an impeller with six vanes. The schematic
view of the centrifugal-pump studied here is shown in Fig. 1. When the pump is run at 2900 rpm, the best efciency point
corresponds to 85 l/min ow rate and 28 m head. The volute-shaped segment of the casing has circular section. As presented
by Fig. 2, the volute is built by distributing its cross-sectional area on a base circle. Beginning at the tongue, the cross-sectional area of the volute passage is zero but it increases with angle (h) in the direction of rotation, ending up at area (Amax)
near discharge nozzle.
The outside diameter of impeller is 160 mm and the ow inlet diameter is 32 mm.
The centrifugal-pump casing is shown in Fig. 3 in an exploded view. It is mainly composed of two parts: one cast iron (GG
25) casing body and one steel (AISI 304) casing cover. The cast iron body is tted to the steel casing cover and it is bonded to
suction pipe on the opposite side, using threaded connection. The casing body is also xed onto the base plate in two points.
A photo of cast iron pump casing is shown in Fig. 4. The detected cases of cracking in pump casing in service for a period of
2000 h represented crack initiation in stress raiser zone, i.e. near discharge nozzle at interface of volute-shaped segment and
body of casing on suction side. Initiated crack propagates into the external surface of the casing through the interface in
peripheral direction away from the discharge nozzle.
It should be mentioned that cast iron (GG 25) is an inexpensive material used to manufacture low cost pumps. It is advisable to use a different material rather than GG 25 and a further investigation of the casing body material is needed. Nevertheless, this issue is outside the scope of current paper.
3. Optimization of the centrifugal-pump volute casing
As a general rule, the more corrosive the pumping uid, the lower the component strength. This notion leads to centrifugal-pump casing reliability deciency if the stress and strain is beyond material strength. In order to ensure the pump

Fig. 1. Cross-sectional view of centrifugal-pump.

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M. Golbabaei Asl et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 19962003

Fig. 2. Volute cross-sectional area distribution in centrifugal-pump.

Fig. 3. Geometrical features of volute casing.

Fig. 4. Photo of breakage in real parts.

works reliably, following paragraphs will study the pump and then based on the study, it will obtain an optimized dimensional design for this volute casing.

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1999

3.1. Finite Element Analysis

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was utilized to calculate casing mechanical capability under hydrostatic test. Here, reliability means that the maximum stress and strain generated in the steel casing cover and the cast iron casing should be below
material strength limits. So the maximum stress in casing (rmax) was chosen as the criterion to measure mechanical capability of the casing. Hydrostatic test conditions were established in accordance with American Petroleum Institute standard
(API 610). Although API 610 usually address several key aspects of petroleum, petrochemical, and gas industry process services, for comparative study reasons, it can be employed as completely reliable criteria [7].
The geometrical parameters of volute casing model are shown in Fig. 5. The volute casing has an overall dimension of
182 mm in diameter and an approximate overall weight of 2.8 kg. It is signicant to note that the volute casing is a singlepiece casting with no welded joint. The wall-thickness (tc ) for volute circular section was xed at 6 mm. The largest circular
cross area (Amax) near the discharge nozzle was designed to be xed at 104 mm2. The wall-thickness for steel casing cover (t s )
was xed at 2 mm. As the gasket between cover and casing is relatively thin, its thickness is ignored in all simulations.
Finite elements were used considering 3D stress and strain of cast iron in elastoplastic region. GG 25 refers to a group of
grey cast iron with a microstructure containing akes of graphite. Sharp edges of graphite akes also tend to concentrate
stresses, allowing cracks to form much more easily. Cast iron property input for this problem employed the failure model
presented by Hjelm [8,9]. The material properties and geometrical dimensions used in the model are listed in Table 1. Nonlinear static analyses were performed to determine the maximum failure-equivalent stress in cast iron casing.
The developed FE model of pump volute casing is shown in Fig. 6 with meshes. The model uses 10-node tetrahedral elements for volute casing and casing cover. The origin of the main cylindrical coordinate system is at center of the volute casing. Elements were sufciently rened so that the analysis results became mesh independent. Simplications were made in
simulation of non-critical sections such as bolt holes; whereas, elements in volute segment were set ne enough. Prior to
verication by experimental observations, a modal analysis was performed for the purpose of mesh validation.
3.2. FE analyses and results
3.2.1. Loading calculation
Gravity effect was neglected compared with high pressures engaged. According to API 610, hydrostatic pressure test for
the centrifugal-pump is given by Eq. (1) as follows:

Fig. 5. Geometrical parameters of volute casing model.

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M. Golbabaei Asl et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 19962003

Table 1
Material properties and geometrical dimensions.
Steel casing cover dimensions

Cast iron casing body dimensions

Outside diameter, ds (mm)

Thickness, tc (mm)

180
2

Outside diameter, ds (mm)

Volute thickness, tc (mm)

Steel casing cover

182
6

Cast-iron casing body

Youngs modulus, Ec (GPa)

Poissons ratio, ms
Density, qs kg/m3
Tensile yield stress, rt (MPa)
Tensile ultimate strength, St (MPa)

193
0.3
8000
450
655

Youngs modulus, Ec (GPa)

Poissons plastic ratio, mp,c
Density, qc kg/m3
Tensile yield stress, rt (MPa)
Tensile ultimate strength, St (MPa)

118
0.43
7200
228
350

Ptest PMAWP  1:5

where PMAWP stands for the maximum allowable working pressure of the pump. The above equation means a hydrostatic test
pressure of 900 kPa for the volute casing. This load was applied at normal working temperature to the inside surface of the
volute casing.
3.2.2. Distribution of simulated stresses
With the dimensions listed in Table 1, maximum failure-equivalent stress of cast iron occurs at the interface of the voluteshaped segment and casing body and at an angular distance of 15 to discharge nozzle on suction side of the casing. Meanwhile,
stress values remain far from the yield point in steel casing cover. Stress analysis results satisfactorily predict the location of
crack initiation as shown in Fig. 4. As presented by Table 2, a general comparison of various stress components for volute casing
revealed that the axial stress rz and the radial stress rr are the major contributors to the equivalent stress. With the knowledge
gained from FEA results, it can be concluded that the optimized geometry of volute casing parameters must, in particular,

Fig. 6. Developed FE model of pump volute casing.

Table 2
FE analysis results for initial and modied volute casings.

Initial volute
casing
Optimized volute
casing

Failure criteria

Stress components

Maximum equivalent
stress re MPa

Maximum radial
stress rr MPa

Maximum tangential
stress rh MPa

Maximum axial
stress rz MPa

r mm

Location of maximum equivalent stress

h (degrees)

z mm

324

319

307

339

85

75

305

281

236

296

82

90

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M. Golbabaei Asl et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 19962003

include structural improvements in wall-thickness of volute-shaped segment near discharge nozzle. In order to keep casting
and fabrication process as simple as before, it was determined to increase the inner wall-thickness of the volute-shaped segment. Hence, the wall-thickness increase starts from 2 mm at discharge nozzle and gradually ends to zero at the angular position of 90. Since geometrical modications led to the volute cross area decrease, a hydraulic test was carried out to examine the
overall performance of the centrifugal-pump with new volute casing. Another FE analysis was performed for the optimized
geometry as well and the results are summarized in Table 2. It can be seen that the maximum equivalent stress occured at
the same position near discharge nozzle but the value has decreased up to 7% compared with the initial model.
4. Centrifugal-pump testing
After obtaining the optimized geometry parameters in the simulation, six new volute casings were cast and fabricated. In
order to verify mechanical capability of casings, hydrostatic pressures of crack initiation were measured by the use of a test
rig as shown in Fig. 7. Schematic view of a typical test rig is presented in Fig. 8. A primary pump was utilized to provide nec-

Fig. 7. Hydrostatic test rig.

Fig. 8. Schematic view of hydrostatic test rig.

Table 3
Hydrostatic test results for six sample volute casings with optimized geometry.
Number of failed casings
Hydrostatic test pressure (kPa)

1
1600

1
1850

1
2000

1
2250

2
above 2500

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Table 4
Typical working life in corrosive water services for centrifugal-pumps with initial and optimized volute casings.
Hydrostatic test pressure kPa
Centrifugal-pump before casing
optimization
Centrifugal-pump after casing
optimization

Working life before failure of volute casings

(h)

600 (equal to maximum allowable working pressure)

2000

900 (equal to 1.5 times maximum allowable working

pressure)

10,000

Fig. 9. Pump performance curve in initial and optimized casings.

essary hydrostatic test pressures. Suction nozzle of casing was connected to the discharge nozzle of the primary pump using
suitable pipe and ttings. A pressure gauge and a buttery valve were installed on the discharge of the casing to adjust the
applied pressure. It was seen that crack initiated in volute casings in pressures much greater than previous pressure and the
crack trend satisfactorily agrees with simulation results in Section 3. Test results are summarized in Table 3 and it can be
observed that failure did not occur in two volute casings even at hydrostatic pressures of 2500 kPa. To supply such high pressures, the centrifugal primary pump was replaced with a reciprocating pump. Table 4 gives the working life of initial and
optimized volute casings.
It should be mentioned that there are some differences between the simulated and tested results in mechanical strength
comparisons. The possible reasons are that:
1. Measurement of FE cast iron parameters may vary from actual pump parameters.
2. FE analysis genuinely includes some approximations.
3. A nonlinear FE analysis was performed in elastoplastic region of cast iron.
Once acceptable mechanical capability was obtained, optimized casings were examined under hydraulic performance
test. Fig. 9 represents the inuence of wall-thickness increase on pump performance. From this gure, it can be seen that
at pump rated point, pressure/head (H) drop is less than 2%. Hence, overall pump efciency decrease can be neglected. In
conclusion, test results revealed a good hydraulic performance as well as enhanced mechanical capability.
5. Conclusions
An optimized design of the pump volute casing with respect to critical structural regions has been obtained. To be sure
about the simulation results some volute casings with new dimensions were fabricated and tested. The hydrostatic test results show that casings with such optimized dimensions have high mechanical capability. The hydraulic test results proved
that the overall performance and efciency decrease due to changes in hydraulic design of the volute-shaped segment are
negligible. Furthermore, modications in casing can be easily done in manufacturing line which do not impose further costs.
References
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[2] Rosu C, Vasiliu N. Researches on the main components of a positive displacement pump by FEM. In: The 2nd FPNI PhD symposium; 2002.
[3] Shannon R. Space shuttle main engine structural analysis and data reduction evaluation. High pressure oxidizer turbo-pump preburner pump housing
stress analysis report; 2005.

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