Investigation of Separation Phenomena in a Radial Pump at Reduced Flow Rate by Large-Eddy Simulation

Turbopumps operating at reduced flow rates experience significant separation and backflow phenomena. Although Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) approaches proved to be usually able to capture the main flow features at design working conditions, previous numerical studies in the literature verified that eddy-resolving techniques are required in order to simulate the strong secondary flows generated at reduced loads. Here, highly resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) of a radial pump with a vaned diffuser are reported. The results are compared to particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments in the literature. The main focus of the present work is to investigate the separation and backflow phenomena occurring at reduced flow rates. Our results indicate that the effect of these phenomena extends up to the impeller inflow: they involve the outer radii of the impeller vanes, influencing significantly the turbulent statistics of the flow. Also in the diffuser vanes, a strong spanwise evolution of the flow has been observed at the reduced load, with reverse flow, located mainly on the shroud side and on the suction side (SS) of the stationary channels, especially near the leading edge of the diffuser blades.