EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS AS AN ACOUSTIC SOURCE AT THE BLADE-PASSING FREQUENCY

Centrifugal pumps represent the primary source of acoustic energy in industrial piping. For hydraulically similar pumps, the amount of emitted energy may vary significantly between different designs and it is generally not known. The available information, typically presented as a magnitude of pressure pulsations measured at the pump discharge, is not free of resonance effects associated with the piping acoustics and, in some aspects, may be seriously misleading. In this paper, we formulate an experimental method to examine the pump acoustic characteristics at the blade-passing frequency. First, we assess the resonance effects in the test-loop. Next, we decompose the measured signal into the components associated with the pump action and with the loop acoustics by means of a simple pump model which is based on a linear superposition of pressure wave transmission and excitation. We apply this technique to examine the acoustics of a single-stage, double-volute centrifugal pump. We estimate the strength of source variables and establish the pump characteristics as an acoustic source. The results indicate that (i) the source variables represent a jump in the acoustic field and are nearly free of resonance effects in the test-loop and that (ii) the pump may act either as a pressure or as a velocity source. Based on this analysis, we postulate that the pressure wave traveling in the direction of pump discharge should be used to define the pump pulsation level for valid comparison between different designs and for acoustic modelling of piping systems.