Performance Improvement of a Liquid Molten Salt Pump: Geometry Optimization and Experimental Verification

Abstract

In order to enhance the hydraulic efficiency of a liquid molten salt pump, the improvement on the pump was carried out through numerical and experimental methods. The internal flow field obtained by the numerical simulation was analysed. The results show that there are low-velocity area in the scroll region and large curvature of the streamline at the outlet. Geometric modification was made by trimming the back-blades of the impeller and filleting the sharp corner of the outlet pipe. The modified pump performance was verified by the experiments. The hydraulic efficiency, the pressure fluctuation, vibration characteristics between the original and modified pump were compared. The results showed that the hydraulic efficiency of the modified pump increased 7.4%. In addition, the pressure fluctuation and vibration intensity were also reduced compared with the original pump. This result shows that the geometric modification improves not only the hydraulic performance but also the structural properties.