MOTION OF TRACER PARTICLES IN A CENTRIFUGAL PUMP AND ITS TRACKING CHARACTERISTICS

The Basset-Boussinesq-Oseen (BBO) equation can be used for most flows to trace the motion of a particle, but in a centrifugal pump, among the forces that act on the particles, one should also include those due to the impeller rotation, as additional effects. This paper firstly reviews various approximations of the BBO equation for the motion of dispersion particles in a viscous fluid. Then based on the motion equation for particles in low Reynolds number centrifugal pumps, a formula for calculating the tracking characteristics of tracer particles is deduced through the Fourier integral transformation. After that the deviations of the particle motion from the fluid motion, as predicted by the various approximations, are discussed and compared. At last, with an emphasis on the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) results, the tracking characteristics of particles are estimated. Also, advantages and disadvantages of different tracer particles are discussed and suitable tracer particles for application in PIV studies for flow fields in centrifugal pumps are suggested.