Effect of Internal Flow in Symmetric and Asymmetric Micro Regenerative Pump Impellers on Their Pressure Performance

The effect of symmetric and asymmetric micro regenerative pump impellers on their pressure performance was studied. The shut off head of the pump with the symmetric impeller was about 2.5 times as that with the asymmetric impeller. The computation of the internal flow was performed to clarify the cause of the increase of the head. It was found that the contribution of the angular momentum supply was larger than that of shear stress for the head development in both cases. The larger head and momentum supply in the case of the symmetric impeller were caused by larger recirculated flow rate and larger angular momentum difference between the inlet and outlet to the impeller. The larger recirculated flow rate was caused by smaller pressure gradient in the direction of recirculated flow. The decrease of the circumferential velocity in the casing was attributed to the smaller local flow rate in the casing.