THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Authors of this Paper

External Links

Yuanyuan Zhao

,

Xiuli Wang

,

Rongsheng Zhu

EFFECT OF ECCENTRICITY ON RADIAL FORCE AND CAVITATION CHARACTERISTICS IN THE REACTOR COOLANT PUMP

ABSTRACT
Nuclear reactor coolant pump as one of the most critical equipment is the only one rotating equipment in first loop system of nuclear power plant. Due to the asymmetric structure of the pump body, especially the existence of outlet segment lead to a certain of radial force, the magnitude of radial force directly affects the work stability of the reactor coolant pump. The nuclear reactor coolant pump could stability work under those transient complex conditions is an important index of its performance. To study the cavitation characteristics and radial force of reactor coolant pump on transient cavitation, a prototype pump and those exhibiting different gravity center offsets are analyzed numerically with CFD software ANSYS CFX by employing RNG k-ε model and two-fluid two-phase flow model. Through the experiment-combined simulation, the variations of cavitation characteristics and radial force of the reactor coolant pump under different eccentricities are characterized. As revealed from the results, the flow characteristics of the internal flow field of the nuclear main pump change after the axis is offset by different distance. The influence of eccentricity on the cavitation of the nuclear main pump is mainly manifested at the impeller inlet from cavitation inception severe cavitation. When the eccentricity is 5 mm, the cavitation performance is improved. The effect of eccentricity on the radial force of impeller is reflected in the variation of force direction. Compared with other plans, the radial force is superior in transient cavitation under the eccentricity of 5 mm.
KEYWORDS
reactor coolant pump, eccentricity, cavitation, radial force, numerical simulation
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2020-06-08
PAPER REVISED: 2020-08-31
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2020-09-24
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2020-10-31
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI200608312Z
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2021, VOLUME 25, ISSUE Issue 5, PAGES [3269 - 3279]
REFERENCES
  1. Zhu, R.S., et al., Numerical study on cavitation characteristics of CAP1400 nuclear main coolant pump, Journal of Drainage and Irrigation Machinery Engineering, 34(2016), 6, pp. 490-495.
  2. Zhang, Y., et al., Inception behavior of the cavitation in nuclear reactor cooling pump, Journal of Engineering Thermophysics, 31(2010), s1, pp. 57-60.
  3. Wang, X.L., et al., Analysis on transient hydrodynamic characteristics of cavitation process for reactor coolant pump, Atomic Energy Science and Technology, (2014), 8, pp.1421-1427.
  4. Shi, W.D., et al., Influence of gap on pressure pulsation and radial force of centrifugal pumps, Journal of Drainage and Irrigation Machinery Engineering, (2015), 6, :461-466.
  5. Wang, P., et al., Numerical analysis on effects of nuclear main pump radial force under different eccentricities, Journal of Drainage and Irrigation Machinery Engineering, (2012), 3, pp. 260-264.
  6. Barrio, R., et al., Numerical analysis of the unsteady flow in the near-tongue region in a volute-type centrifugal pump for different operating points, Computers & Fluids, 39(2010), 5, pp. 859-870.
  7. Gonzalez, J., et al., Steady and Unsteady Radial Forces for a Centrifugal Pump with Impeller to Tongue Gap Variation, Journal of Fluids Engineering, 128(2006), 3, pp. 454-462
  8. Wang, W., Lu, P. B., The Cavitation Research in Reactor Coolant Pump, Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), 2010 Asia-Pacific. IEEE, 2010:1-4
  9. Franz, R. J., et al., On the Effect of Cavitation on the Radial Forces and Hydrodynamic Stiffness of a Centrifugal Pump, National Aeronautics & Space Administration, 1986
  10. Uchida, N., et al., Radial Force on the Impeller of a Centrifugal Pump, Bulletin of JSME, 14(2008), 76, pp. 1106-1117
  11. Cao, W., et al., The influence of impeller eccentricity on centrifugal pump, Advances in Mechanical Engineering, 9(2007), 9, pp. 168781401772249
  12. Raú, B. L., et al., The Effect of Impeller Cutback on the Fluid-Dynamic Pulsations and Load at the Blade-Passing Frequency in a Centrifugal Pump, Journal of FluidsEngineering, 130(2008), 11, pp. 1349-1357
  13. Alqutub, A., et al., Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Radial Gap and Impeller Blade Exit on Flow-Induced Vibration at the Blade-Passing Frequency in a Centrifugal Pump, International Journal of Rotating Machinery, 2009(2014), 1023-621X, pp.9
  14. Gonzalez, J., et al., Steady and Unsteady Radial Forces for a Centrifugal Pump with Impeller to Tongue Gap Variation, Journal of Fluids Engineering, 128(2006), 3, pp. 454-462
  15. D'Agostino, L., and Venturini-Autieri, M. R. Rotordynamic Fluid Forces on Whirling and Cavitating Radial Impellers. In Fifth International Symposium on Cavitation, Osaka, Japan, (2003), Nov, pp. 1-5.
  16. Lei, T., et al., Numerical simulation of unsteady cavitation flow in a centrifugal pump at off-design conditions, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 228(2014), 11, pp. 1994-2006
PDF VERSION [DOWNLOAD]
Effect of eccentricity on radial force and cavitation characteristics in the reactor coolant pump

© 2024 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence