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All about impellers
First the types:
The open impeller is nothing more than a series of vanes attached to a central hub for mounting on the shaft without any form
of side wall or shroud. This design is much more sensitive to vane wear than the semi or closed impeller.
The semi-open impeller incorporates a single shroud at the back of the impeller. This is the most common design used in the
United States and the one you find on most ANSI standard pumps.
The shroud often has "cast in" pump out vanes that will help circulate lubricating liquid from the lantern ring
connection through the packing ahead of the lantern ring.
Most modern pump designs allow you to adjust the semi- open impeller without disassembling the pump. This is a
tremendous advantage if you want to maintain the pump efficiency by adjusting the impeller to volute clearance for
thermal expansion and volute/impeller wear. Remember that if there is a mechanical seal in the stuffing box any
impeller adjustment can interfere with the seal face loading. Those designs that adjust to the volute (Goulds type)
will unload the seal faces and those that adjust to the back plate (Duriron type) will increase the seal face loading.
A typical volute or back plate clearance for a semi open impeller would be 0.015 to 0.020 inches (0,4 to 0,5 mm).
For each 0.002 inches (0,05 mm) you increase this clearance, the pump will lose about 1% of its capacity.
The closed impeller has a shroud on either side of the vanes. This is the most common design found with ISO standard
pumps, oil refinery applications and the design you see on double ended pumps.
To maintain impeller efficiency you are required to replace the wear rings after the original clearance has doubled.
The first problem is to determine when it has doubled, and then you have to take the pump apart to replace them.
The result is that timely replacement is seldom done, and pump loss of efficiency with resultant vibration becomes
the rule.
The general rule of thumb is that the pump will lose about 1% of its capacity for each excessive 0.001 inches (0,025
mm) of impeller clearance.
Since the wear ring clearance is usually smaller than the area of the balance holes drilled through the impeller, you
will lose the advantage of suction recirculation as stuffing box pressure is very close to suction pressure.
The impeller specific speed number describes the shape of the impeller
The shape of the head/ capacity curve is a function of specific speed, but the designer has some control of the head
and capacity through the selection of the vane angle and the number of vanes.
The pump with the highest specific speed impeller, that will meet the requirements of the system, probably will be
the smallest and the least expensive. The bad news is that it will run at the highest speed and be subject to maximum
wear and damage from cavitation.
Radial flow impellers (low specific speed numbers)
They should be specified for high head and low flow conditions.
They seldom exceed 6 inches (150 mm) in diameter and run at the higher motor speeds
The casing is normally concentric with the impeller as opposed to the volute type casings normally found in the
industry..
These impellers exhibit a flat head/capacity curve from shut off to about 75% of their best efficiency and then the
curve falls off sharply.
Radial flow impellers are normally started with a discharge valve shut to save start up power.
Axial flow impellers (high specific speed numbers)
They run at the highest efficiency
They have the lowest NPSH requirement.
They require the highest power requirement at shut off, so they are normally started with the discharge valve open.
Impellers can be manufactured from a variety of materials:
We would like a combination of a hard material to resist wear and a corrosion resistant material to insure long life. This is
often a conflict in terms because when we heat treat a metal to get the hardness we need, we lose corrosion resistance. The
softer metals can have corrosion resistance, but they lack the hardness we need for long wear life. The best materials that
combine these features are called the "Duplex Metals". These duplex materials are now in their second generation. They can
be identified by letters and numbers such as Cd4MCu
If a new impeller is required because of cavitation, the new design should incorporate those features we have learned that will
increase impeller performance:
The use of large fillets where the vanes join the shrouds to lessen stress.
Investment castings so that you can design in the compound curves that produce less wear.
The latest design iteration to help reduce radial thrust.
Sharpened leading edges of the vanes to reduce losses.
A reduction of shroud to cutwater clearance to lessen internal recirculation.
A conversion to the newer duplex metals.
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Impellers can be designed for a variety of applications:
The ideal impeller would have an infinite number of vanes of an infinitesimal size.
The conventional impeller design with sharp vane edges and restricted areas is not suitable for handling liquids that
contain rags, stringy materials and solids like sewage because it will clog. Special non-clogging impellers with blunt
edges and large water ways have been developed for these services.
Paper pulp impellers are fully open and non-clogging. The screw conveyer end projects far into the suction nozzle
permitting the pump to handle high consistency paper pulp stock.
Vortex pump designs have recessed impellers that pump the solids by creating a vortex (whirl pool effect) in the
volute and the solids move without ever coming into contact with the impeller. You pay for this feature with a
greater loss of pump efficiency.
An axial flow impeller called an Inducer (it works like a booster pump) can be placed ahead of the regular pump
impeller, on the same shaft, to increase the suction pressure and lessen the chance of cavitation. In some instances
this can allow the pump to operate at a higher speed with a given NPSH. The inducer will contribute less than 5% of
the total pump head, and although low in efficiency the total efficiency of the pump is not reduced significantly. The
total reduction in NPSH required can be as much as 50%.
People often inquire about forward curved vanes. They have been tested.
Both the capacity and efficiency were reduced.
There was a slight increase in head.
The impeller exhibited unstable characteristics at the low end of capacity range.
The impeller exhibited steep characteristics at high end of the range.
Increasing the number of vanes tends to flatten out the curve and steady the flow.
Impellers can be single or double suction designs.
Because an over hung, single suction impeller does not require an extension of the shaft into the impeller eye it is
preferred for applications handling solids like sewage. The suction eye is defined as the inlet of the impeller just
before the section where the vanes start. In a closed impeller pump the suction eye is taken as the smallest inside
diameter of the shroud. Be sure to deduct the impeller shaft hub to determine the area.
Double suction pumps lower the NPSH required by about forty percent.
Most double suction impellers are constructed so that the stuffing box is at suction pressure. This causes you to lose
the advantage of suction recirculation to prevent seal failure when handling solids. You are going to have to flush
many of these seals with a clean, compatible liquid that will dilute your product to some degree.
Looking at the axial thrust in single stage pumps.
Single stage, single suction, semi-open impeller.
The axial thrust generated is higher than in closed impellers because of the hub. Pump out vanes and balance holes
are a common solution to this problem.
A mechanical seal can add to this axial thrust. The amount is dependent upon the design of the seal. Balanced
designs create less thrust.
Single stage, single suction, closed impeller:
Balancing holes are not desirable with closed impellers because leakage back to the impeller inlet opposes the main
flow creating disturbances. A piped connection to the pump suction can replace the balance holes
Theoretically there shouldn't be any thrust in a double suction closed impeller, but:
An elbow with the inlet piping running parallel to the shaft will cause an uneven flow into the impeller eyes. This
uneven flow will cause thrusting of the impeller in one direction depending upon the flow difference. The eye is
taken as the smallest inside diameter of the shroud. Remember to deduct the area occupied by the impeller hub.
The two sides of the discharge casing may not be symmetrical causing an axial thrust.
Unequal leakage through both sets of packing can upset the axial balance. Leaking seals can do the same thing.
Impellers can be cut down to keep the application close to the pumps best efficiency point :
Theoretically up to twenty five percent of an impeller diameter can be removed, but any time you remove more than
ten percent of the maximum impeller diameter the affinity laws are no longer accurate because of slippage between
the impeller outside diameter and the pump volute.
Changing the impeller diameter changes the head, capacity and power requirements.
The capacity can be increased by under filing the vane tips, but the discharge head and the power requirement will
automatically adjust to the values where the pump curve intersects the system curve.
If you intend to cut down the impeller diameter, the impeller should be cut down in at least two steps and tested after
each step.
After cutting down the impeller diameter the discharge vanes should be reshaped to a long gradual taper to increase
the pumps performance. Chamfering or rounding the discharge tips will frequently increase the losses and should
never be done.
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Over filing is removing metal from the leading edge of the blade. This seldom produces any increase in the vane
spacing and produces a negligible change in pump performance.
Under filing is removing metal from the trailing edge of the blade. If properly done it will increase the vane spacing
and can increase the capacity by as much as ten percent.
If the inlet vane tips are blunt, over filing will increase the inlet area and the cavitation characteristics can be
improved.
Cutting back the tongue increases the throat area and increases the maximum capacity. The head/capacity is then
said to "carry out further".
Open vs.Closed impeller design pumps 14-2.
The open impeller design
The fluid enters the eye of the impeller where the turning vanes add
energy to the fluid and direct it to the discharge nozzle. A close
clearance between the vanes and the pump volute, or back plate in a
few designs, prevents most of the fluid from recirculating back to the
eye of the impeller.
(L) shows the leading edge or higher-pressure side of the impeller. (T)
describes the trailing edge of the impeller
The closed impeller design
The fluid enters the eye of the impeller where the vanes add energy to
the fluid and direct it to the discharge nozzle. There is no impeller to
volute or back plate clearance to set.
Wear rings restrict the amount of discharge fluid that recirculates back
to the suction side of the impeller. When this wear ring clearance
becomes excessive the wear rings must be replaced.
Did you get the difference? High pressure always flows to low pressure, so we now have two separate
methods of restricting internal recirculation that can lower the efficiency of your pump and generate a
lot of unwanted heat to the pumpage.
A set impeller clearance, or
Installed wear rings
There are advantages and disadvantages to each design:
CLOSED IMPELLER OPEN IMPELLER
The impeller to volute or back plate clearance
Can compensate for shaft thermal growth, but if there is
must be adjusted when the pump is at operating
too much axial growth the vanes may not line up exactly
temperature and all axial thermal growth has
with the discharge nozzle.
occurred
You would have to use soft, non-sparking
materials for the impeller and that is not very
Good for volatile and explosive fluids because the close
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clearance wear rings are the parts that will contact if the
practical.
shaft displaces from its centerline
Efficiency can be maintained through impeller
The impeller is initially very efficient, but looses its clearance adjustment.
efficiency as the wear ring clearance increases
No impeller adjustment is possible. Once the wear ring The impeller can be adjusted to compensate for
clearances doubles they have to be replaced. This means wear and stay close to its best efficiency. No
the pump had to be disassembled just to check the status pump disassembly is necessary.
of the wear rings.
The impeller can clog if you pump solids or "stringy The open impeller is less likely to clog with
material". It is difficult to clean out these solids from solids, but if it does, it is easy to clean.
between the shrouds and vanes.
The impeller is difficult to cast because the internal parts The open impeller has all the parts visible.
are hidden and hard to inspect for flaws
The closed impeller is a more complicated and expensive The pump is less costly to build with a simple
design not only because of the impeller, but the open impeller design.
additional wear rings are needed.
The vanes can easily be cut or filed to increase
The impeller is difficult to modify to improve its the capacity.
performance.
You have a greater range of specific speed
The specific speed choices (the shape of the impeller) are choices.
limited
My experience in Europe has been that about 85% of the pumps used in the process industry are of the
close impeller design. Here in the United States it is the opposite, with the exception of oil refineries.
At one of my International seminars I quizzed a couple of KSB Pump Company application engineers
about this difference and was told they used closed impellers more often because the German mechanic
will not make the proper impeller clearance adjustment.
Oil refineries choose the closed impeller design because their products are often explosive or a fire
hazard. If you use open impeller pumps in these applications there is always the danger of the impeller
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contacting the volute and causing sparks. This means that the impellers would have to be manufactured
from a non-sparking material, which is often too soft for the abrasives in an oil refinery application.
If you want to get a feel for thermal growth involved, be aware that a stainless steel shaft grows both
radially and axially at the rate of 0.001 inch, per inch of shaft, for each 100F (0.001 mm/millimeter of
shaft length or diameter/50C) rise in temperature.
Let's take a look at a typical heat transfer oil pump running at 600F (300C) and see what type of
expansions we are talking about. We will start with the inch version and assume a 20-inch long, 1.875-
inch diameter shaft.
If the 1.875 diameter shaft measured twenty inches from the end of the impeller to the thrust bearing and
you heated the shaft up an average of 400F over ambient, it would grow 0.080 inches in length and
0.0075 inches in diameter.
This would be enough axial growth to allow the impeller to contact the volute because a typical
impeller to volute clearance would be between 0.015 and 0.020 inches. The volute is often
manufactured from a different material than the shaft and we have no evidence that both the shaft
and volute will grow in the same direction and at the same rate.
The radial growth is enough to allow the shaft to contact the low expansion metal vibration
dampers frequently used in metal bellows seals specified for this service.
If a heat transfer oil pump in the metric system had a 48mm shaft, 450mm long heated to 200C over
ambient, it would grow 1.8mm in length and 0.20mm in diameter
This is the reason both seal and pump manufacturers recommend turning the shaft by hand prior to start
up, but be careful, it's hot!
All of this means that all impeller clearance must be set when the pump is at operating temperature. It
also means that you are going to have to specify cartridge mechanical seals in these applications because
their operating length must be set when the pump is at operating temperature, or anytime after the open
impeller has been adjusted to compensate for vane or volute wear.
How the shape of the pump impeller affect the pump curve
Pump people use the term specific speed to describe the shape of the pump's impeller. In paper Volume 7 Number 3, I have
shown you the specific speed formula and how the specific speed number relates to :
The pump's efficiency
The NPSHR (net positive suction head required) to prevent cavitation.
Suction specific speed.
Possible motor overloading
The pump cost
Please take a look at the following diagram. It describes how the specific speed number relates to the shape of the impeller :
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In this paper we are going to see how the shape of the pump impeller affects both the slope of the pump curve and the amount
of horsepower that will be consumed by the pump at various capacities.
Most of the pumps used in the process industry are of the Francis vane type with specific speed numbers between 1500 and
4000. That would be curves number two (#2) and three (#3) in the following diagram. These are the familiar curves you see
on most of your pump prints.
In the following diagram you will also learn how this specific speed number (Ns) affects the shape of the pump curve. As you
can see, the higher the specific speed number, the steeper the curve.
The trick is to select the correct specific speed number so that the pump has a reasonable chance of accomplishing exactly
what you want to do. In other words the pump curve matches the system curve.
As an example :
Some process systems require a high head, low capacity pump. A rotary positive displacement pump would be a
natural for the application but often these pumps do not have enough capacity for the application. One look at the
diagram above would show you that a lower specific speed impeller on a centrifugal pump might make sense in that
application.
Many boiler feed pumps need a curve with a constant head, but a varying capacity. In other words, a flat curve is
necessary if the boiler pressure is going to remain a constant while the capacity or steam demand changes. A specific
speed number of between 900 and 2200 looks like it would be a logical choice.
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The next diagram show how the pump's horsepower consumption relates to each of these curve shapes.
From the above diagram you can draw several conclusions :
Low specific speed pumps are started with the discharge valve throttled to save power.
High suction specific speed pumps are started with the discharge valve open to save power.
Please keep in mind that any time you throttle a pump discharge, the pump is operarting off its best efficiency point
and is subject to excessive radial forces that could deflect the shaft and cause a premature mechanical seal failure.
If you will refer to other papers I have written about this subject you will learn how the specific speed number of the impeller
relates to pump efficiency and need for NPSHR (net positive suction head required)
Increasing the pump performance by modifying the impeller
The following information will apply to closed, semi-open and open impellers unless noted otherwise:
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We will be using the term Gap "A" to describe the clearance between the impeller shrouds to the volute or casing
and
Gap "B" describes the clearance between the impeller vanes and the casing or volute.
"D" describes the diameters of the vanes and shrouds
What happens when you reduce the impeller vane diameter?
Several things :
The affinity laws predict the result of this action, but they are not as accurate as we would like them to be, especially
if we are making more than a 10% reduction in impeller diameter. There are several reasons why this is true :
The affinity laws assume the impeller shrouds are parallel. This is true only in low specific speed pumps.
There is increased turbulence at the vane tips as the impeller is trimmed because the shroud to casing
clearance (Gap "A") is increasing. This is sometimes referred to as "slip" .
The liquid exit angle is changed as the impeller is cut back, so the head/capacity curve becomes steeper.
Mixed flow (the popular version) are more affected than low specific speed, radial vane impellers (high head/low
capacity).
I would recommend using only 75% of the calculated cut to stay on the safe side.
The greater the impeller reduction and the higher the specific speed of the impeller, the more the pump efficiency
will decrease with impeller trimming.
Impeller diameter reductions greater than 5% to 10% of the maximum will increase the NPSHR (net positive suction
head required). If there is a close margin between NPSHA (net positive suction head available) and NPSHR (net
positive suction head required) be sure to check with your pump manufacturer for information on how these two will
be affected by an impeller reduction. Unfortunately many pump manufacturers do not publish this information along
with their pump curve.
Excessive shroud to casing clearance (Gap "A" ) and the resultant recirculation to the low pressure side of the pump
will produce "eddy flows" around the impeller causing low frequency axial vibrations that can translate to
mechanical seal problems. This can be a real concern in large pumps of over 250 horsepower (195 KW) or pumps
pumping heads in excess of 650 feet (198 meters).
For many years pump people have been machining the vane tips to reduce the vane passing frequency vibrations
(Gap "B") while carefully maintaining Gap "A". The pulsating forces acting on the impeller can be reduced by 80%
to 85% by increasing gap "B" from 1% to 6%.
For impeller diameters up to 14 inches (355 mm) gap "B" should be at least 4% of the impeller diameter to prevent
"Vane passing syndrome cavitation" problems. Above 14" (355 mm) Gap "B" should be at least 6% of the impeller
diameter to prevent this type of cavitation.
Although both the vanes and shrouds are often cut in end suction, volute type centrifugal pumps; it is not a good idea to do
this in double suction designs. With these types of pumps you can reduce the vane diameters, but the shrouds should remain
untouched.
Structural strength is a consideration when deciding how much to reduce the vane diameter in double ended pumps
because you could leave to much unsupported shroud. Some manufacturers recommend an oblique cut that will
improve the vane exit flow and add some strength to the shrouds.
Machining a radius where the trimmed vane meets the shroud is another good idea to add strength to the assembly.
Square corners are never a good idea.
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Under filing the exit vanes is usually a good idea. Please look at the following diagram :
{(d) is the distance before filling (df) is the distance after filing }
Under filing will increase the pump capacity, especially for large circulating pumps. One look at the above diagram
will make this obvious.
The exit angle of the fluid will change resulting in a higher head at design flow, but no change in shut off head.
Because of reductions in the wake of the fluid exiting the vanes. The efficiency of the pump should improve slightly.
The smaller the size of the pump the larger the effect.
The technique of under filing is critical. Sharp corners, where the vane joins the shroud, can initiate cracks and
eventual impeller failure.
At least 0.0125 inches (3 mm) of vane tip thickness must remain after the under filing.
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