Parametric investigation and energy efficiency optimization of the curved inlet pipe with induced vane of an inline pump

The world energy consumption is currently growing at an alarming rate to support the increase of the world economy and population, which has brought a host of environmental issues. Improving energy efficiency is considered as the crucial solution for changing this situation. The widespread use of inline pumps in the water supply consumes a large amount of electricity, while the efficiency of such devices is lower than the average level. This research is aimed to study the relationship between the shape of the curved inlet pipe and the energy loss distributions by using flow loss visualization technology and correlation analysis. An induced vane was placed at the end of the inlet pipe to suppress the flow phenomena that cause efficiency losses. 700 designs of the inlet pipe with induced vane were generated and calculated to support the research using the automatic simulation approach. An optimization work was also presented to improve the comprehensive performance of the inline pump by using the multilayer feed-forward neural network and multi-objective particle swarm optimization. An excellent performance improvement was found after the optimization, and a deep analysis of four different design schemes based on the loss visualization method was presented to figure out the main reasons for hydraulic losses in the curved inlet pipe.