Enhanced impeller blade design for water coolant pump in IC engines

Enhanced impeller blade design for water coolant pump in IC engines Sudeshna Roy Pratihar, Amol Barve, Onkar Mokashi, Naveen Patil Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India Private Ltd, India. Keywords: Turbulence; hydraulic efficiency; friction loss; computational fluid dynamics; tubercles Abstract: This paper illustrates scope for improvement in water pump hydraulic efficiency by proposing novel design of impeller blade for internal combustion engine. For water pump, hydraulic efficiency is directly proportional to fluid drag imposed on impeller blades. Friction loss & turbulence during typical operating conditions needs to considered, by keeping in mind optimum performance of water pump. Increase in drag losses results in higher power consumption of water pump. Considerable literature study indicates that, tubercles design in area of IC Engines more precisely in topics relevant to water pump design has never tested for Automotive application. Extensive analytical calculation & design work had carried out to adopt novel tubercles on tip of impeller blade of water pump by using 3D tools. In order to reduce drag coefficient impeller blade angle has optimized with help of CFD tools. With this improvement there is potential power saving of more than 2% at water pump level. CFD results indicate significant reduction in drag coefficient of new impeller design. Reduction in drag coefficient increase water pump efficiency in range of 1.5% to 2% over various engine-operating ranges. Proposed concept is modular design of water pump impeller & can be widely used for various on road, off-road automotive & non- automotive applications. Conclusion: The virtual results are very encouraging with more than 2% power saving at water pump level & almost similar saving of ~ 2% in Hydraulic efficiency at water pump component level. Optimization of Hydraulic efficiency of water pump improve fuel efficiency & tail pipe emission.