Experimental Investigations of Cavitation Characteristics of Pump Running in Turbine Mode
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 1
Abstract
When a pump is running in turbine mode, susceptibility to cavitation increases, and it may be more severe than that in conventional hydro turbines. To accomplish the basic aim of making a compact machine with a high setting, a certain amount of cavitation can be allowed, then the erosion risk may be predicted. In the present study, experimental investigations were carried out on cavitation characteristics of a pump running in turbine mode in the nondimensional speed () range of 0.64–1.07. For cavitation analysis, an additional suction creation system was installed, and different techniques were applied for cavitation detection viz pressure measurement, visual inspection, and vibration analysis. The performance of pump as turbine was found better in the of 0.71–0.86 in terms of higher efficiency and lesser possibility of cavitation. From the sigma test, the critical value of was found as 0.595. The study revealed that, when a pump is operated as a turbine, it might be suffering from traveling bubble and von Karman vortex cavitation near impeller blades and vortex rope cavitation in the draft tube.
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Acknowledgments
The authors sincerely acknowledge the financial support received from Gujarat Council on Science and Technology (GUJCOST), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, for the Minor Research Project entitled “Experimental Investigations on Pump as Turbine for Micro Hydropower Plants” wide letter No. GUJCOST/MRP/201574/10-11/3718 dated 1/12/2010.
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Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 1 • February 2017
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 21, 2015
Accepted: Apr 20, 2016
Published online: Jul 7, 2016
Discussion open until: Dec 7, 2016
Published in print: Feb 1, 2017
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