A novel integrated motor-driven centrifugal pump and its hydrodynamic performance improvement

Centrifugal pump is an important fluid-conveying equipment in the fields of transportation, industry, and agriculture. The traditional centrifugal pump generally works in the way of a motor-driven impeller. The impeller is inside the pump housing and the motor is outside. They are connected through the transmission shaft. The disadvantages of this conventional centrifugal pump are obvious: (1) the volume of the pump is large and it always occupies a large area for installation; (2) The driven shaft of the impeller passes through the pump housing and requires a sealing device. The seal is easy to be damaged, resulting in unavoidable pump leakage; (3) The drive motor usually needs air cooling, which increases energy consumption and noise. In view of the above shortcomings, a new type of integrated motor-driven centrifugal pump was invented. This article uses Ansys Fluent to conduct hydrodynamic simulation calculations on the flow components of the integrated motor-driven centrifugal pump. It studies the influence of key parameters such as flow channel shape, number of impeller blades, and blade wrap angle on the hydrodynamic performance of the pump, improves the pump structure, and provides the optimal structural model and operating point of the pump body. The calculation shows that the optimal impeller structure parameters for the integrated motor-driven centrifugal pump are 6 blades and a 90° wrap angle, with a maximum hydraulic efficiency of 86.2% under rated operating conditions.