The pressure distributions and forces presented in a thesis by Hossain [1] for a centrifugal pump illustrated a somewhat complex inter-relationship between various geometric and operating parameters of the pump studied. The pump had an open faced impeller of 33.65 cm diameter with 5 blades of backswept design. It was felt that the best way to resolve some of the questions related to Hossain’s results was to determine the fluid velocity field inside the pump. Thus the flow field through the impeller passages was measured using a 1-D Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) system. The LDV was used to measure the radial and tangential velocity components as well as the turbulence intensities over the region accessible through the two optical windows in the front of the pump housing. Five axial planes were investigated by recording measurements along two radial lines at azimuthal angles of 45° and 315° (with respect to the horizontal axis of the pump) for design operating conditions. A once per revolution signal was used to supply the LDV system with a reference for the rotor position. It was found out that a leakage flow existed near the front wall of the impeller at z/h = 0.11, which was generated by the pressure difference between the impeller exit and inlet. It was also concluded that the velocity field was not fully two-dimensional in nature. This was believed to be a result of the 90° turn that the fluid endures as it enters the impeller inlet from the suction pipe.

The pressure distributions and forces presented in a thesis by Hossain [1] for a centrifugal pump illustrated a somewhat complex inter-relationship between various geometric and operating parameters of the pump studied. The pump had an open faced impeller of 33.65 cm diameter with 5 blades of backswept design. It was felt that the best way to resolve some of the questions related to Hossain’s results was to determine the fluid velocity field inside the pump. Thus the flow field through the impeller passages was measured using a 1-D Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) system. The LDV was used to measure the radial and tangential velocity components as well as the turbulence intensities over the region accessible through the two optical windows in the front of the pump housing. Five axial planes were investigated by recording measurements along two radial lines at azimuthal angles of 45° and 315° (with respect to the horizontal axis of the pump) for design operating conditions. A once per revolution signal was used to supply the LDV system with a reference for the rotor position. It was found out that a leakage flow existed near the front wall of the impeller at z/h = 0.11, which was generated by the pressure difference between the impeller exit and inlet. It was also concluded that the velocity field was not fully two-dimensional in nature. This was believed to be a result of the 90° turn that the fluid endures as it enters the impeller inlet from the suction pipe.

Conventionally the size of the back clearance played a great importance on reducing the axial clearance by utilizing the concept that the decreased axial clearance results in lower axial force acting on the impeller. However, from the previous works on the effect of the back clearance on the hydrodynamic forces upon the semi-open impeller showed the opposite trend: increasing the back clearance results in the reduced axial loading. In this work, the CFD simulation of an entire pump and detailed analysis on the back clearance flow are performed. By utilizing the commercially available software, meshing and CFD simulations are performed. LDA data, unsteady pressure data, and pressure distributions on the housing are used to validate the CFD model. The flow field prediction of the back clearance flow is then compared with other researcher’s works of the gap flow analysis between the rotating and stationary disks. The flow field inside the impeller passage, which is very sensitive to the back clearance size, is also studied. The empirical equation for the leakage loss through the balance holes is produced using the CFD predictions.

This diploma thesis deals with centrifugal pump running as a turbine. Basic working principles of a pump are included, both in pump and turbine regime. Experimental data obtained from laboratory test bed are compared with CFD simulation on slightly simplified geometry. Obtained results are then processed using spectrogram. Influence of time step and mesh size on results is also researched.

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Typical deep level mines use up to 27 ML water per day for mining operations. Multistage centrifugal pumps up to 2500 MW are used in an upward cascading manor to dewater the shaft. The dewatering systems at some mines are automated to enable surface control. Automation of the pumps is typically based on the best practice procedure known when implemented. Best practice procedures are used to ensure safe pumping operations. It was found that pump failures could still occur even with the best practice implemented. Unexpected failures of pumps are of major concern because they can result in the flooding of a mine. Flooding increases the risk of environmental damage and injury to the mining personnel. An additional concern is the maintenance cost of multistage centrifugal pumps. Overhaul cost of a seized multistage centrifugal pump is almost R1-million. The aim of this study was to improve established best practice procedures for pump automation. This could be achieved by investigating the general root cause of failures of automated pumps. Additional instrumentation and protection devices to prevent similar incidents were examined. Revised system control parameters were developed to ensure that the pumps operated within the design specifications. The improved best practices proved to prevent failures as a result of overheating and cavitation. Increasing the pump reliability and availability enabled surface control. The control of the automated dewatering system realised an electricity cost saving of R6-million. The automated system also made it possible to calculate the real-time pump efficiency within 5%. Previous best practice procedure was found to be inadequate to prevent all possibilities of failure. Additional precaution measurements were added to prevent pump failure. / MIng (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Typical deep level mines use up to 27 ML water per day for mining operations. Multistage centrifugal pumps up to 2500 MW are used in an upward cascading manor to dewater the shaft. The dewatering systems at some mines are automated to enable surface control. Automation of the pumps is typically based on the best practice procedure known when implemented. Best practice procedures are used to ensure safe pumping operations. It was found that pump failures could still occur even with the best practice implemented. Unexpected failures of pumps are of major concern because they can result in the flooding of a mine. Flooding increases the risk of environmental damage and injury to the mining personnel. An additional concern is the maintenance cost of multistage centrifugal pumps. Overhaul cost of a seized multistage centrifugal pump is almost R1-million. The aim of this study was to improve established best practice procedures for pump automation. This could be achieved by investigating the general root cause of failures of automated pumps. Additional instrumentation and protection devices to prevent similar incidents were examined. Revised system control parameters were developed to ensure that the pumps operated within the design specifications. The improved best practices proved to prevent failures as a result of overheating and cavitation. Increasing the pump reliability and availability enabled surface control. The control of the automated dewatering system realised an electricity cost saving of R6-million. The automated system also made it possible to calculate the real-time pump efficiency within 5%. Previous best practice procedure was found to be inadequate to prevent all possibilities of failure. Additional precaution measurements were added to prevent pump failure. / MIng (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The recovery and recycling of the spent chemicals from the kraft pulping process are economically and environmentally essential in an integrated kraft pulp and paper mill. The recovery process can be optimised by firing high-solids black liquor in the recovery boiler. Unfortunately, due to a corresponding increase in the liquor viscosity, in many mills, black liquor is fired at reduced solids concentration to avoid possible rheological problems. Online measurement, monitoring and control of the liquor viscosity are deemed essential for the recovery boiler optimization. However, in most mills, including those in New Zealand, black liquor viscosity is not routinely measured. Four batches of black liquors having solids concentrations ranging between 47 % and 70 % and different residual alkali (RA) contents were obtained from Carter Holt Harvey Pulp and Paper (CHHP&P), Kinleith mill, New Zealand. Weak black liquor samples were obtained by diluting the concentrated samples with deionised water. The viscosities of the samples at solids concentrations ranging from 0 to 70 % were measured using open-cup rotational viscometers at temperatures ranging from 0 to 115 oC and shear rates between 10 and 2000 s-1. The effect of post-pulping process, liquor heat treatment (LHT) on the liquors’ viscosities was investigated in an autoclave at a temperature >=180 oC for at least 15 mins. The samples exhibit both Newtonian and non-Newtonian behaviours depending on temperature and solids concentration; the onsets of these behaviours are liquor-dependent. In conformity with the literature data, at high solids concentrations (> 50 %) and low temperatures, they exhibit shear-thinning behaviour with or without thixotropy but the shear-thinning/thixotropic characteristics disappear at high temperatures (>= 80 oC). Generally, when the apparent viscosities of the liquors are <= ~1000 cP, the liquors show a Newtonian or a near-Newtonian behaviour. These findings demonstrate that New Zealand black liquors can be safely treated as Newtonian fluids under industrial conditions. Further observations show that at low solids concentrations (< 50 %), viscosity is fairly independent of the RA content; however at solids concentrations > 50 %, viscosity decreases with increasing RA content of the liquor. This shows that the RA content of black liquor can be manipulated to control the viscosity of high-solids black liquors. The LHT process had negligible effect on the low-solids liquor viscosity but led to a significant and permanent reduction of the high-solids liquor viscosity by a factor of at least 6. Therefore, the incorporation of a LHT process into an existing kraft recovery process can help to obtain the benefits of high-solids liquor firing without a concern for the attending rheological problems. A variety of the existing and proposed viscosity models using the traditional regression modelling tools and an artificial neural network (ANN) paradigm were obtained under different constraints. Hitherto, the existing models rely on the traditional regression tools and they were mostly applicable to limited ranges of process conditions. On the one hand, composition-dependent models were obtained as a direct function of solids concentration and temperature, or solids concentration, temperature and shear rate; the relationships between these variables and the liquor viscosity are straight forward. The ANN-based models developed in this work were found to be superior to the traditional models in terms of accuracy, generalization capability and their applicability to a wide range of process conditions. If the parameters of the resulting ANN models can be successfully correlated with the liquor composition, the models would be suitable for online application. Unfortunately, black liquor viscosity depends on its composition in a complex manner; the direct correlation of its model parameters with the liquor composition is not yet a straight forward issue. On the other hand, for the first time in the Australasia, the limitations of the composition-dependent models were addressed using centrifugal pump performance parameters, which are easy to measure online. A variety of centrifugal pump-based models were developed based on the estimated data obtained via the Hydraulic Institute viscosity correction method. This is opposed to the traditional approaches, which depend largely on actual experimental data that could be difficult and expensive to obtain. The resulting age-independent centrifugal pump-based model was implemented online as a black liquor viscosity soft sensor at the number 5 recovery boiler at the CHHP&P, Kinleith mill, New Zealand where its performance was evaluated. The results confirm its ability to effectively account for variations in the liquor composition. Furthermore, it was able to give robust viscosity estimates in the presence of the changing pump’s operating point. Therefore, it is concluded that this study opens a new and an effective way for kraft black liquor viscosity sensor development.

Most current designs for Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD) are based on rotary pumps due to their small size and lack of valves. However, the majority of FDA approved LVADs are larger, positive displacement pumps. One reason for this may be because positive displacement pumps produce pulsatile flow, similar to that of the natural heart, while rotary pumps produce continuous flow. Continuous flow has been shown to support the circulation for short periods of time during open-heart surgery, but it has seen limited success with long-term support. It is thought that pulsatile flow provides many metabolic advantages to patients with high total peripheral resistance (TPR) and lower flowrates. This study focused on modifying a continuous flow multiple disk centrifugal pump (MDCP) into a pulsatile pump, to allow for the combined benefits of the pulsatility from positive displacement pumps and the small size and valveless design of rotary pumps. An efficiency study was carried out by evaluating the hydraulic work output and the power requirements of the pump. The pump was evaluated in both pulsatile and continuous flow modes. In continuous mode, the pump was able to maintain a flow of 5.5 L/min against a pressure head of 60mmHg at 1155rpm. Other LVADs have reported rotational speeds around 2400rpm for centrifugal and 10,000rpm for axial pumps to produce flows around 5 L/min. This indicates that the MDCP is capable of producing flowrates at lower rotational speeds than other LVADs, lessening the mechanical wear of the parts, thus potentially increasing the device's lifespan. In pulsatile mode, cardiac outputs of 5 L/min were achieved against a 55/27mmHg outlet pressure. Higher pressures were unattainable with our current testing apparatus, but the results from the pulsatile tests prove that the MDCP can be operated in a pulsatile fashion and produce normal flowrates at low pressures. The pump efficiency was lower than expected, around 0.7-9% in continuous mode and 3-18% in pulsatile mode, consuming 3.5-28W and 0.5-2.3W, respectively. Utilizing a smaller motor may produce higher efficiencies, since the power requirements will be less without decreasing the flowrates, but a further study should be conducted in order to verify this.