EFFECT OF MOLTEN SALT PROPERTIES ON INTERNAL FLOW AND DISK FRICTION LOSS OF MOLTEN SALT PUMP

Computational fluid dynamics is used to study the effect of temperature on flow structure and disk friction loss for different working fluids in a high temperature molten salt pump, which is used for concentrating solar power, the velocity profile and pressure distribution in the first stage of the pump model and the effect of the fluid property on the ring leakage, disk friction loss as well as the shear stress distribution on shroud are analyzed for the pure water and the molten salt with temperature 300 degrees C and 565 degrees C, respectively. The main findings can be concluded as: the working fluids have little effect on pump performance and internal velocity distribution whereas the pressure of the flow field would increase with the fluid density, with the increase of the fluid viscosity, the shear stress inside the ring also increases and the total leakage can be eliminated evidently, the increase of the fluid density and viscosity show the significant responsibility for the disk friction loss, in which the fluid viscosity also increases the disk friction loss, and the viscosity is one of the most influential factors for the shroud shear stress and it can be observed that the shear stress on front shroud is higher than that on the rear shroud. It is believed that the present work can deep the understandings of the fluid structures inside the molten salt pump, which can provide some guidelines to improve the pump performance and optimize the pump structure.