Ashish Bowade and Charu Parashar/ Elixir Civil Engg. 86 (2015) 34922-34924 34922 Introduction Centrifugal pumps are rotodynamic pumps which are capable of pumping large volume of liquids at moderate pressure to low and medium heights. In centrifugal pumps discharge is continuous and as it has large liquid handling capacity they are widely used in industries as well as in domestic households. Therefore, it is necessary that centrifugal pumps should be efficient and high performance machines. The shape of blade has great effect on the performance of pump and the blade profile needs to be designed properly. To see the effect of blade shape on the performance of pump various studies are done by different researchers e.g. Nyiri and Gahlot (1993) discussed detailed design procedures of blade profile in Centrifugal and Axial flow pumps (Theory and Design) [1]. Kyparissis et. al.(2009) conducted parametric study performance of a centrifugal pump based on simple and double-arc blade design methods [2]. Sri and Syamsundar (2010) performed computational analysis on performance of a centrifugal pump impeller [3]. A simplified 3d model approach in constructing the plain vane profile of a radial type submersible pump impeller using 3D CAD software was developed by Gundale et.al.(2013) [4]. Singh and Natraj (2014) performed design and analysis of pump impeller using SWFS [5]. Improving the hydraulic efficiency of centrifugal pumps through computational fluid dynamics based design optimization was studied by Moussa and Yunhao (2014) [6]. Methodology For analysing the effect of blade shape on the performance of centrifugal pump the blade profile is first developed with Concentric Circular Arc Method and Point by Point Method keeping all the parameters same. After designing the blade profile with both the methods two impellers, casing and pipe are modelled in ICEM CFD. The two pumps are simulated in Ansys CFX Solver 14.0 commercial package for different discharge conditions to obtain head and efficiency. The design parameters used for designing the pump are as follows. Impeller diameter, vane angle and blade height at inlet and outlet are D1 = 66 mm, D2 = 173 mm, β1 = 23° β2 = 29o, B1 = 15mm and B2 = 6mm respectively. Number of blades Z = 7, Shaft diameter Dsh = 25mm, blade thickness = 5mm, mass flow rate Q =7.4 kg/s, Head H = 30m, Rotation N = 2870 rpm. Figure 1 and 2 shows impeller model and impeller mesh. The meshing data are given in table-1 and table-2 respectively. Figure 1. Impeller model Figure 2. Impeller mesh Effect of blade shape on the performance of radial flow centrifugal pump designed with concentric circular ARC method and Point by Point method Ashish Bowade and Charu Parashar Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India. ABSTRACT Centrifugal pumps are the most widely used pumps due to their simple construction and ease of installation. As use of centrifugal pumps is very common they need to be efficient and low power consuming. Performance of a centrifugal pump depends on various factors like blade angle, blade thickness, number of blades, blade shape, blade outlet diameter etc. In the present analysis the effect of blade shape on the performance of centrifugal pump is shown by designing the blade profile using Concentric Circular Arc Method and Point by Point Method. For both the methods design parameters are kept same and CFD analysis is done to obtain the performance of pump at different flow conditions. Various results are evaluated and compared through charts and graphs. © 2015 Elixir All rights reserved. ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 19 July 2015; Received in revised form: 28 August 2015; Accepted: 4 September 2015; Keywords Blade shape, Centrifugal Pump, CFD Analysis, Design, Performance. Elixir Civil Engg. 86 (2015) 34922-34924 Civil Engineering Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Tele: E-mail addresses: ashish.bowade8889@gmail.com © 2015 Elixir All rights reserved