Establishment of a Characterized CFD Framework for Centrifugal Pump Performance Prediction
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is widely used in industry to predict centrifugal pump performance, and simulation accuracy is heavily dependent on the establishment and definition of the simulation model and its parameters. Historical simulations of a particular centrifugal pump produced by Franklin Electric have not consistently agreed with published performance curves, and lacking data with experimental uncertainty, the accuracy of historical predictions cannot be quantified. This work first establishes an experimental baseline with quantified uncertainty and captures the test article geometry via 3D scanning. A CFD simulation framework is then developed, consisting of systematic characterizations of modeling decisions and their effects on predictions and computational cost. A screening heuristic, adapted from Morris’s elementary effects method, ranks parameters by their influence on quantities of interest. The resulting framework reproduces these hydraulic performance quantities within experimental uncertainty in seven out of sixteen total predictions, six of which are at and below the pump’s best efficiency point, constituting the simulation’s valid regime. Finally, a 2×2 framework study identifies the relative contributions of setup and geometry, finding simulation setup to be the stronger contributor to the CFD predictions overall.
Source: Purdue
Author: Alex McCrory
Institution: Purdue University System
Subfield: Mechanics of Materials
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7221526310
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: