Efficiency optimization of vortex pump based on orthogonal test and computational fluid dynamics

As the main equipment for pesticide spraying of agricultural unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the performance of the vortex pump directly affects the operational efficiency and reliability of the UAV. In this paper, based on orthogonal test and computational fluid dynamics method to optimize the design of the vortex pump, the orthogonal test scheme of L16 (45) is designed by selecting the top clearance, impeller width, unilateral width of the flow channel, lobe height, and impeller diameter as the optimization factors. By analyzing the head and efficiency of 16 groups of different vortex pump schemes in terms of extreme variance, the optimal scheme with the highest efficiency was selected. The performance test was carried out by an external characteristic test bed. The test and numerical simulation results were in good agreement, confirming the high accuracy of the numerical simulation method. Comparing the pressure distribution, turbulence energy dissipation, velocity vector distribution and external characteristics of the optimized model and the original model, it is found that the momentum exchange in the internal flow field of the optimized model is more frequent and the overall energy dissipation is reduced. Under design conditions, the efficiency of the optimized model is increased by 9.8% compared with the original model, which lays a foundation for the optimal design of the subsequent vortex pumps.