1

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF CENTRIUGAL PUMP

1
AMI T H. BHUPTANI ,
2
PROF. RAVI K. PATEL,
3
K.M. BHUPTANI

1
M.Tech.[CAD/CAM] Student, Department Of Mechanical Engineering, U.V. Patel College
of Engineering And Technology, Kherva, Gujarat
2
Asst.Professor, Department Of Mechanical Engineering, U.V. Patel college of Engineering
And Technology, Kherva, Gujarat
3
PhD Scholar, Mech. Engg.,J.J.T. University, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan
bhuptaniah@yahoo.com,rkp@ganpatuniversity.ac.in,bhuptanikm@gmail.com





Keywords- Pump impeller, SolidWorks 2009, Computational fluid dynamics, Fluid flow (CFX), Efficiency
I: INTRODUCTION
Pump is a mechanical device generally used for
raising liquids from a lower level to a higher one.
This is achieved by creating a low pressure at the
inlet and high pressure at the outlet of the pump.
However, work has to be done by a prime mover to
enable it to impart mechanical energy to the liquid
which ultimately converts into pressure energy. It is
widely in used in industries and residential
applications. Centrifugal pumps are the machines,
which employ centrifugal force to lift from a lower
level to a higher level by developing pressure. The
centrifugal pump moves liquid by rotating one or
more impellers inside a volute casing. The liquid is
introduced through the casing inlet to the eye of the
impeller where it is picked up by the impeller vanes.
[1, 2].
II: LITERATURE REVIEW
E.C. Bacharoudis, A.E Filios, M.D. Mentzos, D.P.
Margaris [3] presented the influence of the outlet
blade angle on the performance with the help of CFD
simulation. He studied that as the outlet blade angle
increases the performance curve becomes smoother
and flatter. In this study, the performance of impeller
with same outlet diameter having different outlet
blade angles is evaluated and concluded that, when
pumps operate at nominal capacity, the gain in the
head is more than 6%, when outlet blade angle
increases from 20 to 50. A. Manivannan [4] had
studied about the CFD analysis of mixed flow
impeller is done and the results are compared with
the existing impeller having head H = 19.24 m and
efficiency = 55%. In the analysis three modified
model of the impeller were created by changing the
inlet and outlet vane angles and concluded that by
varying the outlet angle performance is effected the
most. Swapnil Urankar, Dr. H S Shivashankar,
Sourabh Gupta [5] had presented the impeller and
volute designed by Walter K Jekat method and error
triangle method, which was modified during this
work by taking equal divisions and varying vane inlet
angle from hub to shroud. The model prepared is
been analyzed in CFD tool CFX and its performance
is analyzed at different flow rates. At, inlet the
boundary conditions was 0 pa, and at outlet 500
m
3
/hr, 1800 rpm. Finally, concluded that increase in
efficiency is due to little twist provided at the leading
edge of the vane by varying the leading edge angle
from hub to shroud, and small modification in the
vane can give very good results. S.RAjendran and
Dr. K. Purushothaman [6]

presented the work that
describes the simulation of flow in the impeller of a
centrifugal pump having head H = 10m and discharge
Q = 0.0125 m
3
/sec. The flow pattern, pressure
distribution in the blade passage, blade loading plot at
50% span, stream wise variation of mass averaged
total pressure was presented. He also concluded that
CFD predicted value of head at the design flow rate
ABSTARCT: This paper deals with the design and analysis of centrifugal pump. Pump is a device mainly used
for transporting liquid from lower level to higher level. In pumps the mechanical energy is converted into
hydraulic energy. The two main components of centrifugal pump are impeller and casing therefore, they must
be carefully designed for better performance of pump. In the present work the conventional design of pump is
carried out using empirical equations and then the model of closed impeller was generated using
SOLIDWORKS premium 2009 and the same model was analyzed in ANSYS (Workbench) Fluid Flow (CFX).
The analysis is done of existing impeller along with four modified impeller by changing its vane angles by 2.
The main objective of this work is to design the pump, model the impeller and obtain maximum efficiency then
the existing impeller by selecting the optimum vane angles combination.
2

is approximately H =9.4528 m, and pressure contours
show a continuous pressure rise from leading edge to
the trailing edge of the impeller due the dynamic
head developed by the rotating pump impeller. Mitul
G. Patel, Subhedar Dattatraya, Bharat J. Patel [7]
carried out the analysis of the impeller used in the
mixed flow submersible pump. Fluid flow (CFX) was
used for the analysis purpose and due to constant
mass flow rate, same boundary condition, i.e. the
mass flow rate at the inlet and outlet was applied, the
hub and shroud was defined as a wall. And obtained
(1) pressure and velocity distribution in meridional
view of impeller and in blade to blade view of
impeller and concluded that the head generated by
the CFX showed good agreement with the
experimental head.
III: CONVENTIONAL DESIGN OF PUMP
The following are the duty point parameters, required
for the designing of pump. 1) Head (H) = 21.5m, 2)
Discharge (Q) = 0.016

, 3) Speed (n) = 1450 rpm.

The design steps are as follows: [8]
1. Calculation of Shape Number (N
sh
):
N
sh

Where n is in rps
2. Calculation of Power (
Power input to the pump, P
c
is given by,

The calculation of overall efficiency is done
from the figure 1.
Figure.1 Efficiency as a function of shape number
Calculation of power to be supplied by the
Motor

Where

is overloading factor.
3. Calculation of Shaft Diameter (

:-

4. Calculation of Hub Diameter (d
h
):-

5. Calculation of Eye Diameter (

):-

6. Impeller inlet diameter (

):-

7. Calculation of inlet vane angle (

):-

8. Tangential velocity at inlet (

):-

9. Calculation of number of Vanes (Z):-
6.5*(D +D )*sin( + )
2 1 1 2
(D -D )
2 1
Z=
2





10. Calculation of Suction Pipe Diameter (

:-

,
Where

= Flow velocity at inlet

But,

= 0.06 to 0.08*

11. Inlet width at the impeller (

):-
The flow area just inside the vane passage at
the inlet, is

Vane contraction factor at the inlet,

Where,

= Pitch of vanes

= Peripheral vane thickness at the

inlet

Peripheral Vane thickness at inlet,

3

Where,

= Vane thickness at inlet 5 to 8

mm.

12. Vane angle at the outlet (

):-

13. Calculation of outlet diameter (

):-

+ g

Hydraulic efficiency
hy
,

hy
= 1

Theoretical Head

Flow velocity at outlet, C
m2
= 0.8 to 0.9C
m1

Substituting the value of U
2
, D
o
=

. Similar
steps can be applied for obtaining the outlet
width of blade (B
2
) as for inlet width (B
1
).
14. Relative velocity at inlet and outlet (

The calculated parameters are as below.

1. Shape Number N
sh
= 56
2. Power input to the pump, P
c
= kw
3. Power to supplied by motor, P
cm
= 6.09 kw
4. Shaft Diameter, d
sh
= 17.94 mm

5. Hub diameter, d
h
= 25.11 mm
6. Eye Diameter, d
e
= 104.06 mm
7. Impeller inlet diameter, D
i
= 109.26 mm
8. Impeller outlet diameter, D
o
= 254.20 mm
9.
Impeller inlet width, B
1
= 37.89 mm
10. Impeller outlet width, B
2
= 14.54 mm
11. Number of vanes, Z = 8
12. Inlet vane angle,
1
= 13.98
13. Outlet vane angle,
2
= 28
14. Tangential velocity at inlet, U
1
=8.29 m/s
15. Tangential velocity at outlet, U
2
=19.2 m/s
16. Flow velocity at inlet, C
m1
= 2.07 m/s
17. Flow velocity at outlet, C
m2
= 1.65 m/s
18. Relative velocity at inlet, V
r1
= 8.64 m/s
19. Relative velocity at outlet, V
r2
= 3.51 m/s
20. Hydraulic efficiency,
hy
= 87.7%
21. Theoretical head, H
b1
= 24.51 m

IV: MODELING AND ANALYSIS
The model of closed impeller was created using
SolidWorks 2009, as shown in figure 2, and figure 3,
shows meshed cavity model in ANSYS 13.0
Workbench. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is
the process of solving fluid flow equations of mass,
momentum, and energy on computer as applied to a
particular geometry and flow conditions. For, the
analysis Fluid Flow (CFX) was used as simulation
tool. Boundary conditions: Centrifugal pump
impeller is considered as rotating frame of reference
and the working fluid through the pump is water at
25c. Also, the K- turbulence model with
turbulence intensity of 5%. At inlet, mass flow rate of
16 kg/s and at outlet, static pressure (atm), also hub
and shroud are considered as walls.
No of nodes = 10546, No of elements = 44630.

Figure 2. CAD model of impeller





4

Figure 3. Meshed model of impeller

V: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The flow conditions inside the impeller can be varied
by changing the geometric features of the impeller.
The table 1 and table 2, below shows vane angles of
modified impeller and existing and optimum vane
angles.

Table 1. Vane angles of modified impeller
IMPELLER
DESIGN
INLET
ANGLE ()
OUTLET
ANGLE ()
Existing 13.98 28
Impeller 1 11.98 28
Impeller 2 15.98 28
Impeller 3 13.98 26
Impeller 4 13.98 30

Table 2. Existing and optimum vane angles
IMPELLER
DESIGN
INLET
ANGLE ()
OUTLET
ANGLE ()
Existing 13.98 28
Impeller 4
(Optimum)
13.98 30

Fig 4. shows pressure contours at inlet, it helps one in
identifying the maximum and minimum pressure at
the inlet when the fluid comes in contact with the
blade. Fig 5. Shows pressure at outlet of impeller,
before entering the casing.

Figure 4. Inlet pressure contour of existing impeller
Figure 5. Outlet pressure contour of exisitng impeller



Figure 6. Inlet pressure contour of impeller 4

5

Figure 7. Outlet pressure contour of impeller 4
Similarly, fig 6 and fig 7, shows the inlet and outlet
pressure contour of impeller 4, having maximum
pressure as compared to existing impeller, which
ultimately increases the head then the existing
impeller.
a) Head variation
The characteristic curve between head and discharge
is shown in figure 8. It shows that for the existing
impeller, that as the discharge increases the head
decreases. Also the discharge rate increases the
velocity of fluid also increases. The characteristic
curve between head and discharge for the modified
impeller 1 shows that the head is increased by 24.10
% at best efficiency point. The characteristic curve
between head and discharge for the modified impeller
2 shows that the head is decreased by 11.45 % at best
efficiency point. The characteristic curve between
head and discharge for the modified impeller 3 shows
that the head is decreased by 34.12 % at best
efficiency point. The characteristic curve between
head and discharge for the modified impeller 4 shows
that the head is increased by 28.85 % at best
efficiency point. Table 3. shows head at various flow
rate.
b) Efficiency variation
The characteristic curve between efficiency and
discharge is shown in figure 9, it shows that the
efficiency for the existing impeller starts decreasing
after 16 lps. Thus efficiency is decreasing while
operating in higher discharge rate. The characteristic
curve between efficiency and discharge for the
modified impeller 1 shows that the efficiency is
increased by 24.50 %. The characteristic curve
between efficiency and discharge for the modified
impeller 2 shows that the efficiency is decreased by
10.93 %. The characteristic curve between efficiency
and discharge for the modified impeller 3 shows that
the efficiency is decreased by 33.46 %. The
characteristic curve between efficiency and discharge
for the modified impeller 4 shows that the efficiency
is increased by 29.30 % as compared to the existing
impeller, which is maximum compared to all the
other impellers at same duty point.
Table 3. Head at various discharge
Discharge
(lps)
Head (m) of impeller
Existing 1 2 3 4
10 26.86 34.51 25.89 21.95 35.82
13 24.40 31.60 22.31 18.66 33.12
16 21.5 28.33 19.29 16.03 30.22
19 17.18 22.63 14.49 12.42 24.33
22 14.19 18.48 11.69 9.71 20.24




Figure 8. Head vs. Discharge

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
0 20 40
H
e
a
d

Discharge
Exisitng
impeller
Impeller 1
Impeller 2
Impeller 3
Impeller 4
6



Figure 9. Efficiency vs. Discharge
VI: CONCLUSION
Based on the detailed design and analysis of impeller,
following conclusions were derived:
The best efficiency point of the pump is found to
be 16 lps.
The existing impeller, the head, and efficiency are
found out to be 21.5 m and 55%.
The impeller 1, the percentage increase in the head,
and efficiency are 24.10% and 24.50%.
The impeller 2, the percentage decrease in the
head, and efficiency are 11.45% and 10.93%.
The impeller 3, the percentage decrease in the
head, and efficiency are 34.12% and 33.46%.
The impeller 4, the percentage increase in the head,
and efficiency are 28.85% and 29.30%.
Based on the above analysis one can conclude that
impeller4 gives better performance as compared to
the existing impeller as well as other modified
impellers. Thus CFD is an effective tool to calculate
quickly and inexpensively the effect of design
parameter of pump.
REFERENCES
[1] G.K. Sahu., Pumps, New Age International
Publishers, First edition, 2000.
[2] Ross Mackay., The Practical Pumping
Handbook, Elsevier Science and Technology
Books, 2004.
[3] E.C. Bacharoudis, A.E. Filios, M.D. Mentzos,
D.P. Margaris. Parametric study of a
centrifugal pump impeller by varying the outlet
blade angle. The Open Mechanical
Engineering Journal; 2, pp.75-83; 2008.
[4] A. Manivannan. Computational fluid
dynamics analysis of a mixed flow pumps
impeller. International Journal of Engineering,
Science and Technology, vol.2, no.6, pp.200-
206, 2010.
[5] Swapnil Urankar, Dr. H.S. Shivashankar.
Design and CFD analysis of single stage, end
suction, radial flow centrifugal pump for mine
dewatering application. IJREAS, vol.2, issue
2, pp.6-18, Feb. 2012.
[6] S. Rajendran, Dr.K. Purushothaman. Analysis
of a centrifugal pump impeller using ANSYS-
CFX. International Journal of Engineering
Research and Technology, vol.1, issue 3, May.
2012.
[7] Mitul G. Patel, Subhedar Dattatraya, Bharat J.
Patel. CFD analysis of mixed flow
submersible pump impeller. Indian Journal of
applied research, vol.1, issue 9, pp.97100,
June. 2012.
[8] Prof. S. Kumaraswamy. Databook for design
of Centrifugal Pumps. Center for Industrial
Consultancy and Sponsored Research, IIT
Madras.








0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0 20 40
E
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y

Discharge
Exisiting
Impeller 1
Impeller 2
Impeller 3
Impeller 4