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

It is usually thought that the axial impeller is used for high specific speed impeller and the radial impeller is used for low specific speed impeller. In the previous paper, the optimum meridian profile of axial impeller and radial impeller were obtained for various specific speed by means of the optimization of four shape factors using diffusion factor. The four shape factors were inlet relative flow angle β1, turning angle Δβ, axial velocity ratio (meridian velocity ratio) kc = Cm2/Cm1 and impeller diameter ratio kd = D1c/D2c in mid span stream surface. In case of axial impeller, the optimum meridian profiles agreed with meridian profiles of conventional impellers. To develop the radial high specific speed impeller, the optimum four shape factors of radial high specific speed impellers were calculated by diffusion factor. And the optimum meridian profiles of radial high specific speed impellers were proposed. In case of the radial impeller, the hub diameter is equal to the tip diameter in impeller outlet (the outlet hub-tip ratio is 1.0). And in axial impeller, the outlet blade height depends on the outlet hub-tip ratio. On the other hand, in mixed flow impeller, the outlet hub-tip ratio is various and the outlet blade height is independent of the outlet hub-tip ratio. To obtain the optimum meridian profile of mixed flow impeller, the hub-tip ratio of impeller outlet ν2 is adopted new additional independent shape factor for optimization in this paper. The mixed flow angle on tip meridian stream line (= 0 degree in axial impeller, = 90 degrees in radial impeller) isn’t able to be decided by this optimization using diffusion factor. But, the mixed flow angle will be decided by the number of blade and solidity. And, it will be decided by meridian velocity distribution from hub to tip for each specific speed of impeller. So, in this paper the five shape factors are used for optimization by diffusion factor. (β1, Δβ, kc, kd, ν2) The optimum meridian profiles of mixed flow impellers for various specific speed are obtained. The relative efficiency or the cavitation performance of mixed flow impeller is better than that of radial or axial impeller. In this optimum method, the relative efficiency and the cavitation performance are calculated for all specified combinations of five shape factors. The number of five shape factors are expressed by Nβ1, NΔβ, Nkc, Nkd and Nν2. The number of calculations is expressed by Nβ1 × NΔβ × Nkc × Nkd × Nν2. The calculation time of five shape factors method is Nν2 times the calculation time of four shape factors method. Then, the best 1000 combinations of five shape factors are plotted on β1 - Δβ, kc - kd and kd - ν2 plane. The aspect of the best 1000 optimum conditions are found by these three figures. 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 had large inclination on hub and tip stream lines. The calculated data base is five dimensional using five shape factors β1, Δβ, kc, kd and ν2. Using the five shape factors in case of the best efficiency, the optimum meridian profile of improved radial flow impeller is able to be calculated. At first step of the case study, the best 1000 optimum meridian profiles and the best design parameter are selected using five dimensional optimum method. Next, the blade section shape of impeller is decided by the blade or cascade design method. Using impeller flow analysis, the cavitation performance decided by 3% head reduction is calculated. Finally, the relations between the many type of meridian profile and its impeller performance by flow analysis are obtained. These relations are very useful for new type of high specific speed impeller design. Consequently, radial impellers and axial impellers are improved by the consideration of the additional shape factor, that is, outlet hub-tip ratio ν2. This calculation shows that the improved radial high specific speed impeller considering outlet hub-tip ratio is used for high suction specific speed and high efficiency.