To investigate the unsteady flow characteristics caused by interaction between the impeller and volute in the low-specific-speed centrifugal pump

the unsteady flow field of a centrifugal pump with four-long and eight-short blades was simulated based on sliding mesh and RNG k-ε turbulence model. The simulation results of velocity and static pressure show highly asymmetric in space as well as highly unsteady in time. The velocities on sections Ⅳ and Ⅷ of volute have the same trend

and the circumferential velocity decreases along the radial direction of volute. The change of radial velocity magnitude on section Ⅳ is less than that on section Ⅷ because section Ⅳ is away from the tongue and is less influenced. The flow near the volute is the most complex and the radial negative velocity appears on section Ⅷ. The rotor-stator coupling is the main reason for pressure fluctuation

whose frequency is dominated by impeller rotating frequency

and the dominant frequency is blade passing frequency. The amplitude of fluctuation pressure along the volute fluctuates from sectionⅠ to section Ⅷ

and its average value declines gradually until section Ⅷ reaches a minimumvalue. Compared with the steady calculation

the effective head calculated by unsteady calculation is closer to experimental value at design point

indicating that the unsteady calculations can predict the pump head accurately.