A new approach to optimizing a pump diffuser is presented, based on a three-dimensional inverse design method and a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique.
The improvements in stage efficiency were confirmed experimentally over the corresponding conventional pump stage. The application of multi-color oil-film flow visualization confirmed that the large area of the corner separation was completely eliminated in the inverse design diffuser.
The validity of this new design methodology, which directly controls 3-D pressure fields and secondary flows, has already been confirmed for a wide range of diffuser pump specific speeds. Appreciable improvements in hydraulic performance have been confirmed experimentally over conventional designs by using CFD based state-of-the-art approach.