Abstract: Pressure pulsation is one of the main factors causing the vibration of the pump. A special tilt volute is proposed to decrease the vibration of the pump. A centrifugal pump with tilt volute at specific speed 130 is simulated based on FLUENT to obtain the pressure pulsation characteristics. Fast Fourier transform(FFT) is used to change time-domain pressure signals into frequency-domain pressure signals. The results show that: it is obvious that the pressure pulsation in the pump is periodic because of the interaction between impeller and volute tongue. Blade passing frequency is of a leading role in induced vibration by pressure pulsation. The amplitude of pressure pulsation at the monitoring point near the volute tongue does not higher than other points obviously. The pressure pulsation in the centrifugal pump with tilt volute is much lower than that in the normal spiral volute, so the vibration performance of the pump can be improved effectively.

Key words: Centrifugal pump, Numerical simulation, Pressure pulsation, Tilt volute, Time-frequency domain analysis