Structural Aspect of the Impeller Pump

For fluid machinery, the interaction of fluid and solid components cannot be neglected. Sometimes, engineers care more about the solid parts than flows. Therefore, the effects of fluid on the solid parts have attracted efforts from multiple aspects. It should be noted that the shortages of current experimental techniques in treating these issues are apparent. Instead, numerical simulation plays an important role in the previously published studies. In this chapter, two cases are presented. The first case is a pump transporting high-temperature molten salt and the other case is a condensate pump. Numerical simulation is used to treat the problems with the two cases. In this connection, a joint application of CFD and FEA is substantiated. Transient pressure distributions obtained using CFD are used as the initial load exerted on the surface of the pump components. Then stress, deformation and vibration mode of the pump rotor are calculated with the finite element method. The purpose is not to dig into the flow field but to inspect the solid components. The maximum stress, stress distribution over the surface of the solid components, and the deformation are obtained. Furthermore, natural frequencies are calculated through the modal analysis.