Case Study of High Specific Speed Radial Impeller
Authors: Tsugawa Takuji 
Published: March 2009

The optimum shape of high specific speed impeller is usually axial flow impeller. The radial impeller is often used without axial flow guidevane. Usually, the radial impeller is the high pressure and low specific speed impeller. The design parameters of radial high specific speed impeller have not been obtained yet. In the previous papers, the optimum meridian shape of axial flow impeller with axial flow guidevane is obtained for various specific speed. The optimum meridian shapes calculated by diffusion factor agree with meridian shapes of conventional impellers. In this paper, the design parameters of radial high specific speed impellers without guidevane are calculated by diffusion factor. And the optimum meridian shapes of radial high specific speed impellers are proposed. In case of the radial impeller, the hub diameter is equal to the tip diameter in impeller outlet. So, in radial impellers, the outlet hub-tip ratio is 1.0. The optimum meridian shapes of radial impellers for various specific speed are also obtained in this paper. The relative efficiency and cavitation performance of impellers in various shape factors were calculated. The calculation of radial meridian shape needs four kinds of shape factors as the previous papers. The four shape factors are inlet relative flow angle β1, turning angle Δβ, axial velocity ratio (meridian velocity ratio) kc = Cm2/Cm1 and impeller diameter ratio kd = D1c/D2c inmid span streamsurface. In initial step of impeller design, the result of the efficiency and cavitation performance of impeller calculated in optimum principal design parameters is important. The principal design parameters are hub-tip ratio, inlet-outlet diameter ratio, axial velocity ratio, solidity, inlet flow angle, turning angle and blade number. The author proposed the optimum meridian profile design method by diffusion factor for various condition of design parameters. There is a good correlation between the optimum hub-tip ratio and the specific speed considering cavitation performance. The optimum solidity is obtained for the specific speed considering efficiency and cavitation performance. It was found that the optimum meridian profile of high specific speed impeller with appropriate efficiency and cavitation performance has large inclination on hub and tip stream lines. The calculated data base is four dimensional using four various shape parameter β1, Δβ, kc and kd. Using the four shape factor, the optimum meridian shape of radial flow impeller is able to be obtained. The best 1000 optimum design parameters are selected using four dimensional calculated data. The aspect of optimization is recognized with 1000 plotted data on 6 planes. The result of radial flow impeller optimization is different from that of axial flow impeller. In case of axial flow impellers, the shape factors are optimized for each specific speed. But, in radial flow impellers, if both the specific speed and the total head coefficient are given, the optimum shape factors are optimized. The calculation results between profiles and specifications were very useful for the development of new type high specific speed radial impellers.