Learning Forum

[javat33489]

Hi all.
I designed a centrifugal pump using a mixture of water and methane. Methane 5% (volum fraction 0.05).
I used the inlet pressure and outlet mass flow settings, for each fraction the outlet flow rate was set, for methane the inlet volume fraction was set to 0.05.
My goal is to determine whether there will be a decrease in pressure in the pump housing if I increase the gas fraction. This will allow you to understand whether there is cavitation as the gas fraction increases.
And so I increased the gas fraction to 50% and the pressure in the housing did not drop significantly and no vacuum formed.
Does this mean that the pump can potentially handle such a volume of gas in the water? Or do you need to include additional settings in the fluent when increasing the fraction?

[Rob]

I can't answer that. You need to work out what is going on in the pump and then figure out whether the model you have set up is appropriate. What does your Prof think?