Bio-Inspired Shark Skin Riblets for Centrifugal Pump Impellers: CFD and Experimental Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63746/njtd.v22i5.3814Keywords:
Centrifugal pump, Biomimetic riblet structure, Shark skin, CFDAbstract
This study aimed to investigate a new bionic approach to analyze a centrifugal pump through numerical simulations and compare the results with experimental findings. A centrifugal pump consisting of six backward-curved blades; models of the impeller were designed using the riblet structure of shark skin. The flow inside the pump was studied using k-epsilon (k-?) turbulence models. The k-model gave results closest to the real experimental data. In most studies, only design parameters are considered during computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses without consideration of experimental results. Here, a new bio-inspired technique called bionics is applied to the impeller of a pump. The experiments were carried out using a computer-controlled testing setup. The pump's performance parameters were analyzed using both CFD simulations and experimental tests on the duty point as per the manufacturer’s catalog, having a revolution of 2,900 rpm. The bionic impeller achieves a best efficiency point (BEP) at a discharge rate of 12 m³/hr, with a head of 32.75 m and an efficiency of 39.21%. The CFD results closely matched the experimental results at the design flow rate and at all other tested flow rates. In addition, by integrating nature-inspired design with testing, this study contributes to the development of high-performance, sustainable pumps.
References
Alemi H.; Nourbakhsh S.; Raisee Dehkordi M. and Najafi A. (2015). Effects of volute curvature on performance of a low specific-speed centrifugal pump at design and off-design conditions. Journal of Turbomachinery, 137(4), 1-10.
Ao M.; Wang M. and Zhu F. (2021). Investigation of the turbulent drag reduction mechanism of a kind of microstructure on riblet surface. Micromachines, 12(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12010059
Baeten SRR; Kochovski A.; Jovanova J. and Sakes A. (2024). Characterization of shark skin properties and biomimetic replication. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 19(5), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ad5c25
Chandrasekaran M.; Santhanam V. and Venkateshwaran N. (2021). Impeller design and CFD analysis of fluid flow in rotodynamic pumps Materials Today: Proceedings,37(2),2153-2157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.637
Dai C.; Guo C.; Chen Y.; Dong L. and Liu H. (2021). Analysis of the influence of different bionic structures on the noise reduction performance of the centrifugal pump. Advances in Mechanical Engineering, 21(3), 886–895.
Dean B. and Bhushan B. (2010). Shark-skin surfaces for fluid-drag reduction in turbulent flow: A review. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 368(1929), 4775–4806.
Deshmukh D.; Siddique M.H. and Samad A. (2017). Surface roughness effect on performance of an electric submersible pump. Proceedings of the ASME 2017 Gas Turbine India Conference,1-10, ASME
Gülich J. F. (2010). Centrifugal pumps. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, (2), 34-966.
Hassan A.; Abdallah H. and Abou El-Azm Aly A. (2016). Effect of impeller blade slot on centrifugal pump performance. Global Journal of Research in Engineering, 16(4), 71–85.
Hedi M. L.; Hatema K. and Ridha Z. (2010). Numerical flow simulation in a centrifugal pump. International Journal of Thermal Technologies,2(4) ,209-215.
Hieninger T.; Goppelt F.; Schmidt-Vollus R. and Schlücker E. (2021). Energy-saving potential for centrifugal pump storage operation using optimized control schemes. Energy Efficiency, 14(23), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-021-09932-5
Jafarzadeh B.; Hajari A.; Alishahi MM. and Akbari MH. (2011). The flow simulation of a low-specific-speed high-speed centrifugal pump. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 35(1), 242–249.
Kumar S.; Mohapatra S.K. and Gandhi B. K. (2013). Investigation on centrifugal slurry pump performance with variation of operating speed. International Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, 8(1), 40–47.
Liu H.; Cheng Z.; Ge Z.; Dong L. and Dai C. (2021). Collaborative improvement of efficiency and noise of bionic vane centrifugal pump based on multi-objective optimization. Advances in Mechanical Engineering, 13(2), 1–15.
Liu J.; Zhang F.; Zhu L.F.; Yuan S.Q.; Xu R.H. and Zhang H. (2024). Influence of bionic structure on hydraulic performance and drag reduction effect of a centrifugal pump. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2707(1), 1-18.
Li, Y.; Ohiemi, I.E.; Singh, P.; Sunsheng, Y. (2022). Numerical and experimental analysis of pressure fluctuation in axial flow turbine. AIP Advances, 12(2),1-26.
Ma G.; Xia L.; Mou M.; Wu Y. and Yan, Z. (2022). Effect of bionic nonsmooth surface vane on the antiwear characteristics of double-vane pump. Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, 2022(1), 1-13.
Ma L.; Gu Y.; Xia K.; Mou C.; Mou J.; Wu D. and Yan M. (2022). Influence of bionic circular groove blade surface on wear performance. Lubricants, 10(5), 1-17.
Ohiemi, I.E.; Cervantes, M.J.; McNabola, A. (2023). Evaluation of energy loss in a low-head axial flow turbine under different blade numbers using entropy production method. Energy, 263(1) ,1-20
Ohiemi, I.E.; McNabola, A. (2025). Supporting the digitalisation of existing hydropower plants using CFD modelling. Renewable Energy, 235(1),122–138
Sahoo T. and Guharoy A. (2009). Energy cost savings with centrifugal pumps. World Pumps, 2009(1), 35–37.
Sankar S. (2018). Analysis of centrifugal pump impeller using ANSYS. International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 7(5), 5021–5026.
Siddique M. H.; Bellary SAI; Samad A.; Kim J. H. and Choi Y. S. (2017). Experimental and numerical investigation of the performance of a centrifugal pump when pumping water and light crude oil. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 42(11), 4605–4615.
Siddique M. H.; Bellary SAI and Samad A. (2017). Design and optimization of pump impeller using response surface methodology and genetic algorithm. Design Engineering, 2017(28),147–155.
Singh V. R.; Zinzuvadia M. J. and Sheth SM. (2014). Parametric study and design optimization of centrifugal pump impeller – a review. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 4(1), 216–220.
Wang Y.; Dong L.; Zhou R.; Guo C. and Dai C. (2024). Energy loss and noise reduction of centrifugal pump based on bionic V-groove geometry. Water, 16(15), 2183–2195.
Xu Z.; Liu X.; Liu Y.; Qin W. and Xi G. (2022). Flow control mechanism of blade tip bionic grooves and their influence on aerodynamic performance and noise of multi-blade centrifugal fan. Energies, 15(9), 3431. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15093431
Yedidiah S. (2008). A study in the use of CFD in the design of centrifugal pumps. Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics, 2(3), 331–343.
Zhang H.; Tang L. and Zhao Y. (2020). Influence of blade profiles on plastic centrifugal pump performance. Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, 2020(1),1–17. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6665520.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Nigerian Journal of Technological Development
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
In accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976, which became effective January 1, 1978, the following statement signed by each author must accompany the manuscript submitted: "I, the undersigned author, transfer all copyright ownership of the manuscript referenced above to the Nigerian Journal of Technological Development, in the event the work is published. I warrant that the article is original, does not infringe upon any copyright or other proprietary right of any third party, is not under consideration by another journal, and has not been published previously. I have reviewed and approved the submitted version of the manuscript and agree to its publication in the Nigerian Journal of Technological Development." A copyright transfer form can be downloaded from the NJTD Website (http://njtd.com.ng/index.php/njtd). Author(s) will be consulted, whenever possible, regarding republication of material. All authors must have access to the data presented, and the authors and sponsor (if applicable) must agree to share original data with the editor if requested.
