Design Optimisation of a Double Volute Centrifugal Pump: A Numerical Study
Abstract
Centrifugal pumps are widely used in the irrigation and drainage engineering to transport petroleum and chemical products. However, accumulated energy losses, high power consumption and rising government energy efficiency regulations have motivated the pump industry to increase pump operating efficiency and reduce energy losses. This work aims to design and develop a high‐efficiency, level 1 energy‐saving centrifugal pump. Baseline simulations revealed appreciable flow separation and energy losses, so the pump was re‐parameterised in CF Turbo 2025 and examined in Ansys Workbench using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to optimise the pump design. A pump experiment was conducted to assess hydraulic performance and validate the computational pump model. Parametric design parameters, such as impeller outlet width, impeller diameter, blade number and volute diameter, were included to assess their effects on pump performance. The effects of the design parameters were investigated and discussed under different working conditions. The results demonstrated that by varying the design parameters, the optimum pump head and efficiency could increase by 7% and 11%, respectively, significantly reducing power losses and flow separation. Specifically, reducing the impeller width improved the hydraulic efficiency and lowered the energy consumption. The research provides a comprehensive design‐optimisation approach to enhance the performance of a double‐volute centrifugal pump.