Experiment on Pressure Pulsation of Axial Flow Pump System with Different Runaway Head

The runaway condition is a damage condition for pumps and turbines which can induce the wake vortex, reverse flow, and severe pressure pulsation. This study aimed to research the characteristics of pressure pulsation of axial flow pumps under different runaway conditions, and the runaway model test was performed with different blade angles and heads. Moreover, four pressure sensors were uniformly arranged at the impeller inlet section to eliminate the random error. The time domain and frequency domain analysis were the main methods to obtain the change regulations. Results showed that the pressure pulsation under the runaway condition are mainly influenced by the rotation frequency, blade passing frequency, and wake vortex frequency. The dimensionless pressure pulsation coefficient of rotation frequency and wake vortex frequency increased obviously with the runaway head increasing, but changed little with different blade angles. In addition, the dimensionless pressure coefficient of wake vortex frequency of the sensors around the impeller inlet section differed a lot, which means that the wake vortex core is not in center of the rotation axis. The average dimensionless pressure pulsation coefficient of wake vortex frequency is higher than that of rotation frequency with the same runaway head, owing to the severer wake vortex.