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BiBTeX citation export for WEPB16: CFD Predictions of Water Flow Through Impellers of the ALBA Centrifugal Pumps and Their Aspiration Zone. An Investigation of Fluid Dynamics Effects on Cavitation Problems

@inproceedings{gonzalezromero:medsi2020-wepb16,
  author       = {A. González Romero and J.J. Casas and C. Colldelram and M. Quispe},
  title        = {{CFD Predictions of Water Flow Through Impellers of the ALBA Centrifugal Pumps and Their Aspiration Zone. An Investigation of Fluid Dynamics Effects on Cavitation Problems}},
  booktitle    = {Proc. MEDSI'20},
  pages        = {299--302},
  eid          = {WEPB16},
  language     = {english},
  keywords     = {operation, simulation, experiment, distributed, synchrotron},
  venue        = {Chicago, IL, USA},
  series       = {Mechanical Engineering Design of Synchrotron Radiation Equipment and Instrumentation},
  number       = {11},
  publisher    = {JACoW Publishing, Geneva, Switzerland},
  month        = {10},
  year         = {2021},
  issn         = {2673-5520},
  isbn         = {978-3-95450-229-5},
  doi          = {10.18429/JACoW-MEDSI2020-WEPB16},
  url          = {https://jacow.org/medsi2020/papers/wepb16.pdf},
  note         = {https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-MEDSI2020-WEPB16},
  abstract     = {{Currently, the ALBA refrigeration system pumps present cavitation when operating at their nominal regime. To alleviate this phenomenon temporarily until a definitive solution was found, the water flow was reduced to 67% of its nominal value. As this flow exchanges heat with the cooling water produced in an external cogeneration plant, modifying the working point of the pumps resulted in a reduction of the Accelerator cooling capacity. However, even at such low flow conditions, the flow has an anomalous oscillatory behaviour in the distributor of the aspiration zone, implying that the cause may be in a bad dimensioning of the manifold. This paper presents a study of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applied to the aspiration zones of the pumps, to investigate the effects of fluid dynamics on cavitation problems and understand what may be happening in the system. The need for such research arises from the urge to recover the accelerator cooling capacity and the constant pursuit for the improvement of the system. The geometries for this study include the general manifold in the aspiration zone and a simplified model of the pump impeller. The simulations have been carried out with the ANSYS-FLUENT software. Studies performed include considering the total water flow in nominal and under current operating conditions. In addition, the cases in which the flow is distributed through the manifold tubes in uniform and non-uniform ways have been treated separately. Pressure and velocity fields are analysed for various turbulence models. Finally, conclusions and recommendations to the problem are presented.}},
}