Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Numerical analysis of non-axisymmetric flow characteristic for a

pump-turbine impeller at pump off-design condition
Zhao Xiaoran a, Xiao Yexiang a, Wang Zhengwei a, Luo Hongying b, *, Ahn Soo-Hwang a,
Yao Yangyang a, Fan Honggang a
a
State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering & Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
b
Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering College, Tibet Agriculture and Animal Husbandry College, Lingzhi 860000, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present paper analyzed the inner flow characteristic of a reversible pump-turbine at pump mode
Received 2 January 2017 with the optimal guide vane opening. An unusual asymmetrical feature of both pressure fluctuation and
Received in revised form flow pattern inside the rotating impeller was detected under a pump off-design condition, in which the
23 May 2017
flow rate is smaller than that of hump district. The steady and unsteady simulations were performed in
Accepted 25 June 2017
Available online 27 June 2017
ANSYS 16.0 with the SAS SST-CC turbulence model. The simulation results of pressure fluctuations show
that there exists a noteworthy difference of pressure amplitudes in each rotating flow passage, which is
not obvious under other conditions. Flow pattern analysis indicates that the impeller flow fields are
Keywords:
Pump-turbine
asymmetrical in different passages under this pump off-design condition, with significant flow separa-
Rotating impeller tion and vortexes. When exploring the possible causes for this particular flow pattern, it is revealed that
Asymmetrical flow the specific elbow structure has an impact on the flow distribution in the draft tube. Flow separation and
Pressure fluctuation reverse flow are discovered in the conical and elbow part of the draft tube, which leads to the uneven
Vortex flow flow pattern at the impeller inlet. It is demonstrated that there is a close relationship between unsteady
flow structures and asymmetrical pressure fluctuation characteristic.
© 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
During the past decades, the energy demand has increased
dramatically, followed by some important energy issues. One of
them is the stability of the grids, which is influenced by the supply
and demand fluctuation. Pumped-storage power is a good com-
plement to the other renewable energy resources for electrical
balance [1]. Pumped storage power stations undertake the tasks of
grid peak shaving, frequency modulation, phase modulation and
valley filling in electric power system. Pump-turbines operated in
pumped storage power stations are characterized by high hydraulic
heads and bidirectional operations at various working conditions.
The present requirements demand the pump-turbines to be
used at off-design conditions. Thus, it is important to expand the
operating range and to ensure working stability of pump-turbines.
In a transient operation process, while in starting process at
generating mode, load-rejection condition and power-off process at
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lhy_xz@sina.com (L. Hongying).
pump mode, the pump turbine units could enter the “S” charac-
teristic area on the characteristic curve, which would give rise to
unstable pressure pulsations and cause vibrations and mechanical
damages to the unit [2e4]. When operated in either of pump or
generating mode at the off-design conditions, several complex flow
phenomena are usually observed in pump-turbines, such as cavi-
tation flows, reverse flows, vortex flows and pressure fluctuations
[5,6]. In pump mode, the hump characteristic is a major factor
affecting the stability of pump-turbines, disadvantageously due to
the low specific speed [7,8]. These phenomena could result in the
sudden disorganization on the passage flow and bring about large
pressure fluctuations.
This study focuses on the flow characteristics in the impeller
under the off-design working condition, in which the flow rate is
smaller than that of the hump district. The primary concern is the
flow structure and pressure fluctuation asymmetries. Several re-
searchers have concentrated on the unsteady flow phenomena in
Francis pump-turbines, experimentally and numerically. Jese
concluded that the attack angle and the radial gap would affect the
flow structures at the trailing edge of the impeller blades [9]. Erne
carried out CFD simulations with several turbulence models and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2017.06.088
0960-1481/© 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
1076 Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085

compared the results with experimental data. The results indicated

that the reverse flow was generated in the draft tube core and the
static pressure distribution was asymmetric circumferentially,
which leaded to a low-frequency pressure fluctuation [10]. These
researches dedicated to figuring out the unsteady flow phenomena
involving the non-uniform flow structure and its asymmetrical
flow characteristic in Francis pump-turbines. However, the effects
of these phenomena on the flow patterns in the whole impeller
passage have still not been investigated. The exact relationship
between the non-axisymmetric flow pattern and the unsteady flow
characteristic should be analyzed in the impeller flow passage. Fig. 1. Simulation domains for a Francis pump-turbine.

The asymmetrical flow field caused by the flow disturbance in

the pump-turbine could increase the non-uniformity of the axial
Table 1
and radial forces in various degrees [11,12], thereby leading to noise Performance parameters of the Francis pump-turbine.
and vibration. Since stability and security issues in pump-turbines
Parameter Value
require more concern for operating conditions variability, the
mechanism of asymmetrical flow characteristic in the pump- Impeller diameter Dr 0.47 m
Number of impeller blades Zr 9
turbine under off-design conditions at pump mode needs to be
Number of guide vanes Zg 20
investigated more meticulously. Number of stay vanes Zs 20
Optimal opening of guide vanes Aopt 27 mm
1.1. Previous studies for centrifugal pumps Rotating speed n 1300 rpm
Design flow rate Q0 408 L=s
Design head H 51 m
Various studies are focusing on centrifugal pumps. It should be pffiffiffi
3:65n Q 158.8 m$PS
noted that Francis pump-turbines at the pump mode are similar to Specific speed ns ¼ H3=4
centrifugal pumps on the structure forms and the operating
methods. Therefore, researches on the asymmetrical flow charac-
teristic in centrifugal pumps would provide a foundation for them
on Francis pump-turbines. Pei performed 3D internal flow simu-
lations in a centrifugal pump and found out that the velocity and
static pressure distributions were not uniform circumferentially,
which was more obvious at the low flow rate condition [13]. Zhang
conducted a PIV experiment on the diffusion-type and contraction-
type sewage pumps. The asymmetric flow patterns appeared at the
impeller outlet in both pumps [14]. Some studies presented that the
asymmetric pressure fluctuation was associated with the volute
static pressure distribution. Guo carried out the experiment on the
pressure fluctuation and the vibration in a centrifugal pump. The
results showed that the pressure fluctuation in the impeller was
non-uniform circumferentially coupled with the volute static Fig. 2. Meshes of all simulation domains.
pressure under off-design conditions [15]. Zhu investigated the
pressure characteristic in a gap drainage impeller experimentally
and numerically. The findings revealed that the pressure pulsations analyzing the relationship between the pressure fluctuation and
were uneven at the impeller circumference, which showed the the unsteady flow pattern in the impeller passage, along with
tendency was consistent with static pressure in the volute [16]. taking the upstream flow structures into consideration. The present
Some researchers argued that the interaction between the impeller paper aims to find out the relationship between the non-
and the volute was the major reason for the asymmetrical flow axisymmetric flow phenomenon and the unsteady flow charac-
characteristic. Miner numerically modeled a centrifugal pump teristic, from the flow field analysis on the flow structure and the
under 0.75Q0 working condition. The results showed that each pressure fluctuation. 3D numerical simulations with a Francis
channel had a distinction on the flow rate in the impeller. For this
reason, there was an obvious asymmetric pressure distribution due
to the interaction of impeller blades and a tongue [17]. Cui simu-
lated the internal flow field in a low-specific-speed centrifugal
pump and explored that the amplitudes of pressure fluctuation
varied circumferentially owing to impeller-volute interaction [18].
Wang found out the asymmetric flow pattern in a multistage cen-
trifugal pump, which was caused by the vortex and reverse flows
[19]. Li demonstrated that the ring vortex band and the reverse flow
were generated in the pipe outlet under 0.4Q0 and 0.6Q0 conditions
in the centrifugal pump, which propagated to the impeller inlet and
brought about non-uniform flow patterns [20].

1.2. Objective of study

From the above findings, the study on the asymmetrical flow

characteristic in pump-turbines could be also established with Fig. 3. Performance characteristic curves of both simulation and experiment [21].
 Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085
pump-turbine model were performed at off-design condition with
the optimal guide vane opening in pump mode.
2. Simulation model
2.1. The reversible model pump-turbine
This paper simulates the whole passage flow of a reversible
pump-turbine, with 9 impeller blades and a diffuser with 20 guide
vanes and 20 stay vanes, as shown in Fig. 1. Performance parame-
ters of the pump-turbine are listed in Table 1. The final mesh is
Fig. 4. Layout of the rotating monitor points in the impeller.
Fig. 5. Apeaktopeak in each flow passage under 0.46e1.19Q0 working conditions.
1077
chosen after the mesh-independent check, which was conducted in
our previous study [21]. It is composed with 2.8 million elements,
of which the maximum dimensionless wall distance yþ is less than
200. The volute domain consists of the unstructured tetrahedral
meshes with 0.59 million elements. For the other domains, the
structured hexahedral meshes are applied, such as the impeller,
stay vanes, guide vanes and draft tube domains, of which the
number of grid elements is 1.2 million, 0.29 million, 0.34 million
and 0.42 million, respectively. The generated mesh is finer for the
impeller, stay vanes and guide vanes than the others, to capture the
complicated and unsteady flow structures, as shown in Fig. 2.
2.2. Turbulence model and boundary conditions
Under the off-design condition, the internal flow in the high-
speed rotating impeller is quite unstable, which is strongly influ-
enced by the rotor-stator interaction. For this reason, the strong
shear flow would be observed at the blade-surface boundary layer,
by the large angle of attack. The SAS-SST-CC turbulence model is
adopted to simulate the flow field in the pump-turbine. This Scale-
Adaptive Simulation model (SAS) was proposed by Menter [22,23].
It is a hybrid turbulence model, which includes the v. Karman
length-scale in the transport equation of the turbulence eddy fre-
quency. Therefore, the SAS-SST turbulence model could provide the
better solutions for the off-design condition due to involving
various scale vortices. Curvature correction, based on the work of
Spalart and Shur, is a modification for improving the curving and
rotating flows on turbulence models [24]. It is employed to predict
the internal flow in the impeller passage more accurately.
The boundary condition for the draft tube inlet is set to the
velocity condition on the specific working condition. Static pressure
1078 Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085

condition is adopted to the volute outlet boundary. In unsteady the passage. For example, the rvP91 locates at inlet of the pressure
simulations, the angular resolution is 2 , which is 1/180 of a rota- side in Passage 9.
tion period. The results of the last 8 revolutions are sampled for the Time-domain analysis on pressure fluctuations is adopted at the
further analysis in this paper. 216 monitor points in the impeller. A dimensionless value is
defined as Apeak-to-peak to describe the relative amplitude of pressure
2.3. Numerical results validation and simulation working condition fluctuations, as shown in Equation (1). The relative deviation of
selection Apeak-to-peak in each flow passage is defined in Equation (2) in order
to display the diversity of pressure fluctuations in different passage
Steady flow simulations with the optimal guide vane opening (Passage 7 is set as the base data).
were performed in the previous paper to verify the numerical
settings [21]. The maximum flow rate is 1.34Q0 and the minimum DH
Apeaktopeak ¼  100% (1)
flow rate is 0.46Q0, where Q0 is the optimum discharge condition. H
The simulation results of performance curve were compared to the
experimental results, as shown in Fig. 3. The simulation errors in Apeaktopeak; Passage N  Apeaktopeak; Passage 7
the efficiency are less than 4.52%, which shows the simulation re- DAN ¼  100%
Apeaktopeak; Passage 7
sults are reliable. From this result, the simulation method was
verified. The hydraulic performance of this pump-turbine at pump (2)
mode has a hump characteristic. There are some complex flow
DH is the peak-to-peak value of the pressure fluctuation, of which
structures, which could be observed clearly in the experiments.
the unit is converted to the length, and H is the head of the pump-
In order to understand the flow characteristics at the whole
turbine at pump mode. Besides, N represents the passage number.
working conditions on the performance curve for the optimal guide
The results in Apeak-to-peak at mid-passage under 0.46Q0, 0.69Q0,
vane opening, unsteady flow simulations are carried out at 0.46Q0,
0.85Q0, 1.0Q0 and 1.19Q0 working conditions are shown in Fig. 5. The
0.69Q0, 0.85Q0, 1.0Q0 and 1.19Q0 working conditions. The results
relative amplitudes of pressure fluctuations are less than 7% and the
show that the flow non-uniformity is stronger as the flow rate gets
smaller. (The detailed analysis is mentioned in part 3.1) The
circumferential asymmetry is a typical and noteworthy phenome-
non at the 0.46Q0 condition, in which the flow rate is smaller than
the pump hump district. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the
asymmetrical flow behavior in the rotating impeller at 0.46Q0
condition under the optimal guide vane opening.

3. Asymmetrical flow analysis in rotating impeller

3.1. Pressure fluctuation analysis on nine blade passages

For investigating the unsteady flow features in 9 blade passages

and their asymmetries on the flow behavior, the pressure data are
saved at 216 rotating monitor points inside the impeller during the
unsteady simulations. For the purpose of recording the general
pressure variation inside the impeller, we select the revolution
surface of 0.5 span to set the monitor points. They are uniformly
arranged near the pressure side and suction side boundaries and
the mid-passages in the 9 channels, as shown in Fig. 4. Here, rvP,
rvM and rvS represent the points at the pressure side, the suction
side and the mid-passage, respectively. The first number is the
passage number and the second represents the radial location in Fig. 7. Pressure fluctuation spectrum at rvM91~rvM98.

Fig. 6. Changing trend of DAN in each flow passage.

 Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085 1079

differences between each passage are not obvious under 0.85Q0,
1.0Q0 and 1.19Q0 working conditions. However, the difference of
relative amplitudes becomes remarkably significant when the flow
rate decreases. Under 0.46Q0 working condition, the maximum
relative amplitude of pressure fluctuations is more than 60%.
Therefore, we conduct the analysis mainly on the flow character-
istic under 0.46Q0 working condition.
The results in DAN at the pressure side, the mid-passage and the
suction side under 0.46Q0 working condition are compared sepa-
rately, as shown in Fig. 6. The distribution of relative amplitudes in
9 blade passages is obviously uneven. The changing trends in the
streamwise direction vary in different passages, which indicates
that each passage has the discrepancy in the flow structure.
Fast Fourier transform (FFT) was used to analyze pressure sig-
nals of all 216 monitor points. The dominant frequencies are almost
the same in 9 passages. To show the pressure spectra in the
impeller, the fluctuation amplitudes and the relative frequencies at
the mid-passage points in Passage 9 are presented in Fig. 7. The
relative frequency is defined as f/fn where fn represents the rotating
frequency of the impeller. In this figure, the frequency 20fn is
induced by the rotor stator interaction, which has the larger
amplitude at the vicinity point of the vanes (rvM98). The detected
first dominant frequencies are lower than fn. The amplitudes at the
lower frequencies are significantly larger relative to the high fre-
quencies, and for the point near the vanes they are especially higher
than the other points.
Pressure fluctuation spectra of monitor points at the same radial
position in each passage are compared to explore the asymmetrical
characteristic in pressure signals. Fig. 8 shows the comparison of
them in rvPx1~rvPx8 where x represents the passage number. The
dominant frequencies are generally the same at each blade passage,
while the amplitudes have obvious distinctions. At rvPx4~rvPx6,
the amplitudes at Passage 5, 7, 8 and 9 are higher than other pas-
sages. At rvPx7 and rvPx8, the frequency diagrams seem to be

Fig. 8. Pressure fluctuation spectrum at rvPx1~rvPx8 (x represents for the passage number).
1080 Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085

complicated, and the amplitudes of the dominant frequency are

remarkably large. Here, the frequency of 20fn is significant, which is
induced by the interaction between impeller and guide vanes. And
the pressure amplitude variation trend is not as same as the other
monitor points, that is, the amplitudes at Passage 5, 7, 8 and 9 are
not the highest. It means that the internal flow near the vanes is
complicated in the impeller under the low flow rate condition. It
could be influenced not only by the rotor-stator interaction phe-
nomenon but also other factors. The asymmetrical phenomenon
could result from vortexes distribution in different rotating
impeller passages, and it will be described in the next section.
Fig. 9 shows the comparison of the pressure fluctuation char-
acteristic in rvSx1~rvSx8 at the suction side. Like the pressure side,
the frequencies are similar at the same radial positions and the
amplitudes vary at different passages. However, the amplitudes at
the points of rvSx1 are distinguishable from the others, where the Fig. 10. Vortex flow structures in the impeller (l2 ¼ 400000m2 ).

Fig. 9. Pressure fluctuation spectrum at rvSx1~rvSx8 (x represents for the passage number).
Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085 1081

Fig. 11. Streamline on a 0.5 span plane in the impeller.

1082 Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085
amplitudes of Passage 1, 3 and 7 are significantly higher. It is
demonstrated that the inlet flow obviously has the asymmetrical
characteristic at the suction side. Compared to results at the points
of rvSx2, pressure amplitudes of rvSx1 are obviously larger. It is due
to the rotor-stator interaction between rotating impeller and static
suction pipe. Under the low flow rate working condition, there
could exist a reverse vortex pattern flowing from the impeller inlet
to the suction pipe outlet, which will interfere with the rotating
blades. In the previous study on centrifugal pumps [25], this
interaction was also detected, and it brought about the formation of
ring vortex band and a more complex flow structure. This phe-
nomenon could have an influence on the pressure fluctuations.
3.2. Analysis of flow pattern in rotating blade passages
The l2 -criterion, proposed by Jeong and Hussain in 1995 [26], is
used to display the vortex structures in the impeller. The l2 -crite-
rion has been used by several researchers for the detection of the
vortex core [27,28]. When the effect of disturbance and viscosity is
ignored, the symmetrical parts in gradient of the incompressible
Navier-Stokes equation can be expressed as follow. Define the ei-
genvalues of the symmetric tensor as l1 , l2 and l3 , then
l1  l2  l3 , l2 < 0.
1
S 2 þ U2 ¼  VðVpÞ
r accounts for almost 50% of the whole passage and is larger than the
As shown in Fig. 10, vortexes mainly appears at the trailing edge
of the pressure side and leading edge of the suction side in several
Fig. 12. Normal Eigen helicity distribution on Z ¼ 0.15 m plane in the draft tube.
passages, in an instantaneous flow field. From Fig. 10, it can be
known that there is a significant asymmetric flow phenomenon in
the impeller, especially near the hub.
For exploring the changing trend of flow structures over time,
flow streamlines on a revolution surface at 0.5 span of the impeller
during one rotating period are presented in Fig. 11. The inner flow
structure is uneven at each moment owing to the complicated
vortex structures. There, various scale vortices can be observed,
especially near the blade tip and the blade leading edge. Taking two
obvious vortex structures as an example, at the pressure side in
Passage 8 and the suction side in Passage 3, the temporal and
spatial variations on the vortexes are discussed, and two taken
vortices are marked in Fig. 11. The two structures rotate around the
axis of the rotating impeller, of which relative positions are almost
not be changed, while the swirling flow area between two marked
vortices changes temporally.
From the comparison of the flow structures in the whole
impeller at different moments, it could be observed that the blade
inlet vortexes near the suction side only present in Passage 1, 3, 4, 5,
6 and 7 in a period. For the trailing edge vortex, when each rotating
impeller blade reaches near the volute tongue region (the upper
right corner in the figure, as shown in Fig. 11(k)), the vortexes
appear at the middle of the pressure side. At that moment, the flow
separation at the middle of the pressure side in Passage 5, 7 and 8 is
more evident among the 9 passages. And the swirling streamline
(3) area with low velocity, which can be defined as the vortex regions,
other passages. The complex flow patterns nearby cause blockages
and disorder in the Passage 5, 7 and 8 for longer periods of time.
 Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085 1083

Besides, at several moments, there exist vortexes at both the middle
of the pressure side and the trailing edge. However, this phenom-
enon is not discovered in other passages. Meanwhile, vortexes are
alternately generated at the impeller outlet near the pressure side
in each passage. From the results on the unsteady flow pattern and
the pressure fluctuation characteristic, it is demonstrated that the
internal flow is disorganized and asymmetric in the impeller, at the
low flow rate working condition.
3.3. Analysis of influence factor on asymmetrical flow in impeller
The internal flow in the draft tube is also analyzed in order to
investigate the influence of upstream flow on the asymmetrical
flow characteristic in the impeller. In Fig. 12, normal Eigen helicity
method is applied to analyze the vortex flow inside the draft tube.
The illustrated figures are at the cross-section plane Z ¼ 0.15 m in
the draft tube, as shown in Fig. 12(e). The Helicity method uses the
normalized helicity Hn to extract vortex core lines [29]. Hn is the
cosine of the angle between the velocity ! v and the vorticity vector
!
u ¼V! v , as follow:
!v $! u
Hn ¼ ! ! (4)
j v jj u j
This method has been applies in many researches and been
proved as an useful tool to display the vortex distribution [30,31]. It

Fig. 13. Flow structure and analysis in the draft tube.

1084 Z. Xiaoran et al. / Renewable Energy 115 (2018) 1075e1085
reveals that the flow on the cross-section near the draft tube outlet
is uneven circumferentially and changes over time. The flow
pattern near the interface between the impeller and the tube has an
impact on the velocity distribution at the impeller inlet. This
asymmetrical flow characteristic could lead to numerous problems
such as the secondary flows involving vortexes at the impeller inlet.
The asymmetrical flow at conical part results from the complex
upstream flow, as the elbow part of the draft tube. There appear
different scale vortexes and reverse flows in the draft tube, as
shown in Fig. 13(a). The asymmetric geometric structure of the
draft tube has an influence on flow patterns at pump mode under
the off-design condition. In this figure, the flow passing through the
draft tube inlet is smooth without any flow separation. Since the
radius of side A is larger than that of side B at Plane I, the pressure
decreases gradually from the wall of side A to that of side B due to
the centrifugal force, when the flow passes the elbow part. There-
fore, the flow velocity near the side A is smaller than the side B, as
shown in Fig. 13(b). The velocity distributions at Plane I and Plane II
at t ¼ 1.754s moment were shown in Fig. 13(c) (d). At Plane I, the
velocity near side B is much larger than that near side A, while at
Plane II, the velocity is almost the same at the whole plane. In this
way, the radial velocity gradient generates the further flow sepa-
ration and reverse flow near the wall, which cause the uneven flow
pattern near the draft tube outlet. Comparing to the straight pipe
structure of pump, the draft tube structure with elbow part of
pump-turbine has more particularities and aggravates the
circumferential asymmetry of flow velocity. Although there are also
vortexes and swirling flows in the inlet pipe of pump when oper-
ating at off-design conditions, the flow field is more complex and
uneven near the impeller inlet of the pump-turbine.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, unsteady numerical simulations are performed on
a reversible pump-turbine at pump mode off-design condition with
the SAS SST-CC turbulence model. The inner flow pattern and
pressure fluctuation are analyzed and an unusual asymmetrical
flow feature is found in the rotating impeller under a pump off-
design condition, in which the flow rate is smaller than that of
hump district.
Under 0.46Q0 off-design condition with the optimal guide vane
opening, FFT method was used to identify the dominant fre-
quencies and amplitudes. The dominant frequency is lower than
the rotational frequency. And 20fn is found as the frequency of
rotor-stator interaction. The dominant frequencies are similar at
the same radial positions at both pressure and suction sides.
However, the change trends of relative pressure amplitudes at
pressure side, suction side and mid-passage on the flow direction
vary in different passages. That is, the amplitudes at specific radial
positions in several specific passages are evidently higher. The
obvious difference presents at the middle and outlet of pressure
side and at the inlet of suction side. There exists a more significant
difference in pressure fluctuation amplitudes between each pas-
sage, while comparing to the previous research results on the same
pump-turbine under hump strict condition. Besides, the relative
amplitude of pressure fluctuations is larger, which indicates that
the flow pattern is more complex inside the impeller under this off-
design condition.
The flow pattern analysis agrees well with the pressure fluctu-
ation results. Flow pattern distribution is circumferentially uneven.
Vortex structures appear at the inlet of suction side, the middle and
outlet of pressure side and change over time. It could give rise to
pressure fluctuations. Compared with the flow characteristic in
hump district, the flow structure in the impeller is much more
disordered under this low flow rate working conditions. The swirl
flow area becomes larger and the flow blockage phenomenon is
more evident. It is investigated that there exist vortexes and reverse
flow at the elbow part of the draft tube, which bring about the
asymmetrical vorticity distribution at the conical part. In addition,
the special formation of draft tube contributes to the uneven dis-
tribution, when comparing to the condition in centrifugal pumps.
Therefore, the non-uniform inner flow of draft tube has an influ-
ence on the asymmetrical flow characteristic in the impeller.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks are due to the State Key Program of National
Science of China (Grant No. 51439002), National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 51479093), Special Funds for Marine
Renewable Energy Projects (Grant No. GHME2012GC02), State Key
Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering (Grant No. 2016-E-01),
The National Key Research and Development Program of China (No.
2017YFC0404200), Chinese National Sci-Tech Support Plan (Fund-
ing NO. 2012BAD10B01) for supporting the present work.
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