Hydraulic Design of Cryogenic Centrifugal Pumps

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Pumping cryogenic fluids is an enabling technology for a variety of industrial applications such as fluid transfer of liquified gases in chemical process plants and production of liquified natural gas (LNG). In the past, the development of cryogenic turbo-style pumps with centrifugal stages was based on simplified design rules and empiricism, expensive and time consuming, and the analysis tools used lacked predictive accuracy.

Cryogenic Pump

Today cryogenic pumps can be designed quickly and with greater reliability via state-of-the-art design software. These modern design tools are fully integrated with multidisciplinary physics-based models. Pump designs can be realized to meet the required flow rate and pressure rise characteristics, with minimal time and cost. The models for fluid properties, parametric geometry generation, flow analysis with optimization, structural and thermal analyses are seamlessly connected and have a user-friendly interface. With these tools, a single well-rounded engineer can do the work of a hundred engineers. These modern tools enable rapid design of cryogenic centrifugal pumps resulting in reduced development time and cost.

The development of turbomachinery design and analysis tools has a long history at SoftInWay. Numerous hardware projects have been successfully performed in which SoftInWay’s cutting-edge tools, developed fully in-house, were utilized to design, analyze and optimize turbomachinery components and systems. Moreover, new software features, including validated models, have been implemented into the tools, to enable improvements in predictive accuracy. Additionally, SoftInWay has personnel with experience working in the aerospace industry on cryogenic pump technology for propulsion systems.

In this webinar we will focus on the turbo-style (axial and centrifugal) configurations of cryogenic pumps currently being used in the industry. We will also demonstrate an example of how to perform the design and flow analysis of a multi-stage high pressure rise and high flow rate liquified natural gas (LNG) centrifugal pump.

The scope includes:

Comparison of various types of turbopumps, including single stage inducer style as well as centrifugal pumps with volutes.
Types of fluids – liquified gases that are handled by cryogenic pumps in industry
Preliminary design of a multistage centrifugal pump for cryogenic liquified natural gas.

Who should attend:

Mechanical and aerospace engineers working in both the chemical process industry and aerospace industry.
Managers who would like to expand their knowledge about the capabilities of modern design tools for cryogenic pumps.
Faculty members from mechanical and aerospace engineering universities.
Students who are thinking of careers in mechanical engineering and would like to learn the fundamentals of pump design for cryogenic applications.

Guest Presenter: Joseph Veres

Joseph Veras Mr. Joseph Veres has 44 years of experience in turbomachinery design and analysis. In 1989 he joined NASA Glenn Research Center as an aerospace engineer in the Space Propulsion Technology Development Branch. His primary area of research was in the development of turbopump technology for liquid propelled rocket engines. He became the Chief of the Turbomachinery and Heat Transfer branch at NASA Glenn Research Center in 2004. He retired from NASA in 2018. During his career he has developed Euler based flow analysis and design codes for multistage axial and centrifugal pumps and compressors. He was at Dresser-Rand from 1974 – 1984 as a senior compressor aerodynamicist designer and has designed high efficiency multistage centrifugal compressors for industrial use in chemical process plants, gas pipeline boosters refineries, and gas reinjection. From 1984 – 1989, Joseph was at Teledyne Turbine Engines as the senior aerodynamicist in centrifugal compressors, and has designed numerous high-performance compressor stages for small turbojet, turbofan and turboshaft engines for military aircraft propulsion systems. He has been a member of ASME since 1974.