Numerical investigation of the flow-pressure characteristics in the vortex hydrogen circulating pump

The hydrogen circulation pump is one of the core components of hydrogen cycle system. To solve the problem of low hydrogen density and the possibility of hydrogen leakage, a vortex hydrogen circulation pump is designed. Taking the three-dimensional flow field of the hydrogen circulation pump as the research object, the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) numerical calculation model of the pump cavity flow field was established, and the internal flow field simulation calculation was performed to analyze the performance characteristics of the hydrogen circulation pump at different speeds and determine. To investigate the effects of flow rates of 80 L/min, 100 L/min, 120 L/min, rotational speeds of 9000 rpm, 11000 rpm, 13000 rpm, 15000 rpm, and the number of vanes of 32, 36, and 40 on the internal flow field of the hydrogen circulating pump. It was found that when the rotational speed was maintained at 15 000 rpm, the flow rate interval was from 80 L/min to 120 L/min, and its pressure difference was always around 270 Pa; When the flow rate is guaranteed to be constant, change the speed of the rotor, the results show that the higher the speed, the higher the differ-ence in pressure between the inlet and outlet; When studying the effect of different number of vanes, the results show that the average static pressure is the most stable when the number of vanes is 36, and the static pressure is stable at 101 345 Pa, while the average value of static pressure is the largest when the number of vanes reaches 40. This work provides ideas for the research of hydrogen cycle system for fuel cells in the future.