Improving the hydraulic efficiency of centrifugal impellers by using reverse engineering — Case study of a centrifugal pump

The paper presents a combined design method based on a direct and inverse computing algorithm and reverse engineering procedure for an existing centrifugal pump impeller in order to enhance the hydraulic efficiency. An iterative methodology is proposed based on identification of the centrifugal pump impeller, simulation in order to obtain the enhanced hydraulic efficiency and a new geometry followed by testing. By using a rapid prototyping procedure the centrifugal impeller is manufactured and tested. The experimental results are used in order to calibrate the theoretical model and a new simulation is performed. After the second iteration, theoretical and actual efficiency values were compared in order to validate the design method. By using the proposed method, an extra (1.7-2.0)% increased hydraulic efficiency was gained comparing with the direct method.