42
Ser.B, 2007,19(1):42-47
NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF 3-D TURBULENT FLOW IN THE MULTI-
INTAKES SUMP OF THE PUMP STATION*
CHEN Hong-xun, GUO Jia-hong
Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China,
E-mail: chenhx@staff.shu.edu.cn
(Received September 27, 2005; Revised March 2, 2006)
ABSTRACT In this article, a numerical model for
three-dimensional turbulent flow in the sump of the pump
station was presented. A reasonable boundary condition for the
flow in the sump with several water intakes at different flow
rates was proposed. The finite volume method was employed to
solve the governing equations with the body fitted grid
generated by the multi-block grid technique. By using the
Fluent software, the fluid flow in a model sump of the pump
station was calculated. Compared with the experimental result,
the numerical result of the example is fairly good.
KEY WORDS: pumping station, sump, suction pipe, turbulent
model, numerical simulation
1. INTRODUCTION
In the sumps of the large pump stations, there are
always several water intakes which may have different
flow rates respectively. Because of the interference
between each water intake, the flow in the sump is
always complicated. Therefore, if the sump is not
properly designed, when some pumps are in running,
severely bad flow in the sump and the water intakes
may bring on vibration and cavitation in the pumps,
leading to severe noise, damage to the pump
components, reduction of the performance of the
water intakes and declination of the efficiency of the
pump station. So, it is of great importance to design a
sump in which deleterious vortices may be restrained
and the above-mentioned problems may be coped with
(cf. Refs.[1-3]).
Traditionally, small-scale model sumps are
frequently used to find solution to restrain deleterious
* Project supported by the Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project(Grant No: Y0103).
Biography: CHEN Hong-xun (1962- ), Male, Ph. D., Professor
vortices and to cope with the above-mentioned
problems. Aiming at the tested model sump, some
approaches have been proposed to control the vortex
in the sump and the water intakes, to make the flow
smooth there, and thus, to reduce the flow loss.
However, until now no definite design criteria for the
sump in the pump station have been developed which
may have general applicability[4]. Along with the rapid
development of the Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD), numerical simulation has also been regarded
as an effective tool in solving fluid problems in
engineering. Due to the big costs for design and
operation of small-scale physical models, the
numerical simulation, which is economic and
universal, has been more often used in designing the
sump and water intakes of the pump station.
Although the flow in the sump of the pump
station with one water intake has been studied using
the Navier-Stokes equations and turbulence model by
Constantinescu[5, 6] , Xu[7] , Lu[8, 9], Cheng[10]and
Guo[11], few scholars conducted the numerical
simulation of the flow in the sump with several water
intakes. In the work of Matahel[12], the inviscid flow in
the sump with two water intakes was studied, on the
basis of successful simulation of the flow in the sump
with one water intake. In Ref.[12], the flow rate of the
whole pump station, was given as the boundary
condition at the inlet of the sump, and the zero
gradient condition of the physical parameters was
given in the water intakes. So, the flow rate of each
water intake becomes the result of calculation and
 43

may not meet the prescription of flow rate through 0

each water intake, which is determined by the flow ( u ) + ( u ) + ( u ) P
S =
rate of each pump according to the requirements for e x x e x y e x z x
(3)
safe operation of the pump station with high ( eu y ) x + ( e v y ) y + ( e wy ) z Py
efficiency.
In this article, a numerical model for the three- ( eu z ) x + ( e vz ) y + ( e wz ) z Pz
dimensional turbulent flow in the sump of the pump
station with several water intakes is presented.
According to the fact that the flow rate of each pump e is equal to the sum
where the effective viscosity
of the pump station should be prescribed before of the molecular viscosity and the turbulent
calculation on account of the request for the flow rate viscosity t i.e.,
of each pump and the difference of water level
between the upperstream and downstream, the given
boundary condition is the flow rate in each water e = + t (4)
intake and the zero gradient condition for the physical
parameters at the inlet of the open channel, which is In an arbitrary curvilinear coordinate system
located far enough from the region of the sump. The
finite volume method and body fitted grid system are
prescribed by the function x = x( , , )
used in solving the governing equations. The Fluent y = y ( , , ) z = z ( , , ) , Eq.(1) can be
software is employed to calculate the fluid flow in a rewritten as
model sump of the pump station. Comparison between
the numerical and the experimental results proves the U t + A x + A x + A x + B y + B y +
validity of the present method for the simulation of the
flow in the sump with multiple water intakes.
B y + C z + C z + C z = S (5)

2. GOVERNING EQUATIONS AND 2.2 Turbulence model

BOUNDARY CONDITION The k- model is adopted in this article. The
2.1 Governing equations relations for turbulence closure are
The continuity equation and momentum
equations in the x, y, z directions in Cartesian
k k t k
coordinates are described by + u j = + +
t x j x j k x j
U t + Ax + B y + C z = S (1)

u i u i u j
where t + (6)
x j x
j xi
u
u uu u t
U = , A=
e x
+ u j = + +
v uv e vx t x j x j x j

w uw e wx
C1 t u i u i u j
C2
2
+ (7)
v k x j x
w j xi k
vu u wu u
B =
e y
, C=
e z

vv e v y wv e vz
(2) C k 2
t = (8)

vw e wy ww e wz
44

where C =0.09, C1 =1.44, C 2 =1.92, k =1.0, and

( )
3
=1.3. C k s 2
= (11)
( z s + C BE d )
2.3 Boundary conditions
(1) Condition in the water intakes
The interface of the inlet of each pump and the
water intake is treated as the boundary where the where zs is the distance from the center of the element
velocity is given according to the prescribed flow rate involving the free surface to the free surface, ks is the
of the pump, and also kinetic energy of the element, the value of CBE is 0.07.

k 1.5
k = 0.03uin2 = (9)
0.005L
where uin and L are the velocity at the inlet of each
pump and the characteristic length respectively.
(2) Boundary conditions at the inlet of the sump
The inlet should be located at an open channel
connecting to the sump, which is far enough from the
region of the sump(see Fig.1). The boundary condition
is
3. MULTI-BLOCK BODY FITTED GRID AND
EQUATION DISCRETIZATION
3.1 Multiblock body fitted grid generation
Because the geometry of the solution domain of
the sump of the pump station is complicated, the
multiblock body fitted grid[14] is employed in this
article. The solution domain is divided into several
blocks, in each of which the grid is obtained
respectively and is coupled at the interface of
neighboring blocks. The body fitted grid is obtained
by solving the following Laplace equation

=0 (10) 2 x 2 x 2 x
n 2 + =0 (12)
2 2
where = (u , v, w, k , ) , and n is the normal
vector of the outlet surface. 2 y 2 y 2 y
2 + =0 (13)
2 2

where

2 2
x y
= + (14)

x x y y
= + (15)

Fig.1 Calculation domain of the flow in the sump of the pump
station

2 2
(3) Wall condition x y
The wall function is employed to reduce the = + (16)
number of grid needed near the wall of the water
intakes, the sump and the open channel.
(4) Free Surface Condition 3.2 Finite volume method for solving equations
The upper surface of the water in the sump and The finite volume method[15] is employed for
the open channel is regarded as the free surface. If discretization of the governing equations with the
there is not sheart stress caused by wind and heat above-mentioned grid. Equatons (1), (6) and (7) are
transfer with the atmosphere on the surface, the written in the unified form as follows:
velocity and kinetic energy at the free surface is
treated as the same as those at the symmetrical surface.
However, according to Hossain [13], the dissipation ( ) + i( V ) = i( ) + S (17)
t
rate of kinetic energy is
 45

where is the universal conservative variables,

=( 1, u , v, w, k , ) in each equation.

4. NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FLOW

IN THE MODE SUMP
The flow field in the model sump of the pump
station in a sewage treatment plant is calculated to
validate the numerical method presented in this article.
In the model sump shown in Fig.2, there are five
water intakes, with the prescribed number of each
water intake from above to below being 1 to 5. The
full length of the model sump is 4100 mm , and the
largest width is 3143 mm. In the calculation, the x-
axis is fixed on the central surface of the model sump, Fig.3 Solution domian for the numerical solution of the flow
and the direction of the flow is taken along the in the model sump
positive-axis direction. The y axis is fixed as shown in
Fig.2, and the z axis is fixed is vertical to the
horizontal surface with the positive direction upwards.
In the numerical test, the water intake No.3, is closed
down. The flow rates of each water intake are
Q1 =11.80l/s, Q2 =11.78l/s, Q3 =0.00l/s,
Q4 =11.84l/s, and Q5 =11.68l/s respectively. The
largest depth of water in the model sump is 700 mm.

Fig.4 Velocity vectors on each section perpendicular to the x

axis

Figure 4 shows the velocity vectors on each

Fig.2 The ichnography and the cross section of the model
sump
Figure 3 shows the solution domain for the
numerical calculation. In the simulation, at the inlet of
the pump in each water intake, the velocity is
prescribed according to the flow rate of each pump.
The free surface of the water, which is regarded as
horizontal, is treated with the rigid cover assumption.
It is assumed that the pool for water collection has
little influence on the flow field in the sump, it is
replaced by extended open channel, at the inlet of
which zero gradient condition for all the physical
parameters is prescribed.
section perpendicular to the x axis. From the figures of
velocity vectors on the Section S3 and S2, it can be
seen that there exist uniform expansions of the flow in
the y and z directions respectively, caused by the
expansion of the sump in these directions. The
numerical results for the velocity vectors on each
section perpendicular to the y axis is shown in Fig. 5.
From Figs. 4 and 5, it is founde that there exists a
large region of backwater near the water intake No.3,
because it is closed down. Furthermore, at the front of
the water intake No.3, there also exist circulation and
separation.
Figure 6 gives the calculated velocity vectors on
each horizontal section. From the figure, it can be seen
that there exist uniform flow expansions towards the
two sidewalls along with the expansion of the sump in
46

these directions. The flow separation at the front of

the water intake No.3 is also shown in the Fig.6.

Fig.5 Velocity vectors on each section perpendicular to the y

axis

Fig.8 Comparison of velocity between the numerical and

experimental results on Section S2

To validate the numerical results, the flow

velocity on Sections S1, S2 and S3 prescribed in Fig.1
is measured in the experiment. The Sections S1, S2 and
S3 are respectively 250 mm, 900 mm and 1350 mm
apart from the water intakes in the sump. The
comparison between the numerical and the
experimental results is shown in Figs.7, 8 and 9.

Fig.6 Velocity vectors on each horizontal section in the

model sump

Fig.7 Comparison of velocity between the numerical and Fig.9 Comparison of velocity between the numerical and
experimental results on Section S3 experimental results on Section S1

On Section S3, fairly good agreement between
the calculated and the experimental results for the
velocity can be seen from Fig.7, though the calculated
velocity is larger than the experimental results at the
outlet position of the screen near the sidewall. Also on
Section S2, the calculated velocity is more uniform
than the experimental results. Because the No.3 water
intake is closed down, the calculated velocity on
Section S1 at the front of the water intake No.3 is
accordingly much smaller, but the experimental result
is much larger as shown in Fig.9. However, the
calculated velocity on Section S1 at the front of the
water intakes No.1 and No.5 agrees with the
experimental result quite well.
5. CONCLUSIONS
In this article, a numerical model for
three-dimensional turbulent flow in the sump of the
pump station has been presented. A reasonable
boundary condition for the flow in the sump with
multi-intakes, each of which may have different flow
rates, has been proposed. The fluid flow in a model
sump of the pump station is calculated and compared
with the experimental results. The comparison
between the numerical and the experimental results
shows that they fairly agree with each other. Therefore,
the present method can be applied to simulate the flow
field in the sump with multiple water intakes
effectively, and can be used in the design of the sump.
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