Effects of splitter Blade Length on disc pump performance

Abstract

The disc pump operates using boundary layer principle and viscous drag with a relatively low efficiency. There are methods to increase head and efficiency, one of them is the placing of blades sectors or splitter blades in discs. This method has been applied only in the low viscosity fluids pumping (v < 0.1 stokes). This study describe an experimental research in a hight viscocity fluid (v = 2 stokes) with exit angle (32 = 35° and different splitter blades Lengths (Ls) (75, 50, 25%). The purpose is to determinate the splitter blades length that achieves the most effective combination between the blade effect and boundary layer effect in order to increase the energy transmission efficiency from the impeller to the fluid. As result, it can be established that the use of spliter blades is an alternative to increase the performance of the disc pump. The highest efficiency and head were obtained for the gapsize between two discs (b) of 12 mm using a 50% spliter blades length of the main blade length.