Numerical simulation and optimization of automotive water pump to eliminate shaft seal failure in high speed operation
A type of automotive water cooling pump was broken down in an endurance test.The reason for the failure is the rubber components of the shaft seal experienced a high temperature caused from dry run.In order to investigate the causes for the failure,the 3D turbulent cavitating flow in the pump is simulated based on the time-averaged N-S equations,SST k-ω two equation turbulence model and homogeneous cavitation two-phase flow model.The results show that cavitation phenomenon occurs in the flow in the sealing chamber of the seal under high rotational speed and temperature conditions because of the loss of system pressure and the insufficient water flowing in the region of the seal.The created vapour was trapped and unable to take the heat generated by the seal away,causing the seal failure.Then,a few measures,such as installing ribs on the pump housing,altering position and size of balance holes in the impeller hub were taken to eliminate the cavitation phenomenon,and the corresponding numerical results were validated by experiments.The numerical and experimental results show that these modifications allow the sealing chamber was full of liquid and the cavitation does disappear;as a result,the seal failure phenomenon is eliminated.This research output is meaningful to some extent for guiding engineering practice.
automotive water pumpmechanical sealdamagenumerical simulationoptimization
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
维普
