Analysis and design of a water pump with accumulators absorbing pressure pulsation in high-velocity water-jet propulsion system

• Published in: Journal of marine science and technology Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 551 - 558
• Main Authors: Xiaohui, Luo, Shuping, Cao, Weijie, Shi, Xiaofeng, He
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01-09-2015; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Absorption; Accumulators; Analysis; Automotive Engineering; Bioaccumulation; Charging; Engineering; Engineering Design; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Mathematical analysis; Mechanical Engineering; Offshore Engineering; Original Article; Outlets; Pressure; Pulsars; Pulsation; Pumps; Thrust; Velocity; Water; Water resources management; Working conditions; Accumulator; Water pump; High-pressure water-jet propulsion system; Pressure pulsation; Flow pulsation
• ISSN: 0948-4280; 1437-8213
• DOI: 10.1007/s00773-015-0311-8

A large capacity and high-pressure piston water pump is often used as the power supply in a high-pressure water-jet propulsion system (HWPS). When the piston water pump works, some flow and pressure pulsation is generated and then creates large thrust pulsation and jet noise. In most cases, an accumulator charged constant pressure gas is always installed near the outlet of the water pump to absorb the flow and pressure pulsation. If the thrust of HWPS is required to alter, the rotation and output pressure of the water pump will change. So, the function of the accumulator absorbing flow pulsation and pressure pulsation will weaken. To solve this problem, an effective means that makes multiple accumulators which are charged different pressures to connect with the outlet chamber of the water pump is put forward in this paper. According to the structural pattern of water pump, working pressure range of HWPS and allowable value of pressure pulsation factor, some key parameters, could be worked out by optimal calculation method proposed first, such as the number of accumulators, volume and charged pressure of each accumulator. Finally, results of simulation and experiment revealed that three pairs of accumulators, whose parameters were optimally calculated from actual working conditions, could keep the pressure pulsation factor to about the allowable value all along when working pressure of HWPS varied over the range.