InlinePump

Research activities

Experimental test on Pumps with different Inline geometry
Optimization of Inlet and Impeller for a wild flow range

Projects

Vertical inline pump is a centrifugal pump with special structures that the inlet and outlet of the pump are on the same line and usually have the same size. Its characteristics are small size, large flow rate ranges, and convenient installation; hence, it is usually applied in areas where installation space is a constraint, such as urban water supply systems. There is, however, a bent pipe section called the inlet pipe, which has different angles and cross sections that result in terrible flow conditions before the impeller. Consistently, the flow in the inlet pipe was nonuniform especially at part-load condition. There were also many vortices moving toward the surfaces, which were more intense than the mean flow. Hence, the efficiency of the inline pump is normally lower than the common single-suction single-stage centrifugal pumps with the similar specific speed. Therefore, it is very meaningful and necessary to optimize the inlet pipe to improve the performance of vertical inline pump.

The aim of the present research is a in-depth study, overlaying multiple perspectives and a multi-objective optimization of the inline pump to obtain the optimum design able to increase the efficiencies at 0.5 Qd, 1.0 Qd and 1.5 Qd.