As with any turbomachinery, pump design requires a lot of effort on finding the right blade profile for the specified application. As there is no right or wrong in the process, engineers have to make some general assumptions as a starting point. Generally, we can say that the focus of this task is to minimize losses. It is obvious that the selected blade shape will affect several important hydrodynamic parameters of the pump and especially the position of optimal flow rate and the shape of the overall pump performance curves. In addition to axial and radial pump design in recent years, we also have seen the development of mixed-flow pumps. A mixed flow pump is a centrifugal pump with a mixed flow impeller (also called diagonal impeller), and their application range covers the transition gap between radial flow pumps and axial flow pumps.
Let’s consider a dimensionless coefficient called “specific speed” in order to be able to compare different pumps with various configurations and features. The “specific speed” is obtained as the theoretical rotational speed at which a geometrically-similar impeller would run if it were of such a size as to produce 1 m of head at a 1l/s flow rate. In formulas:
where ns is the specific speed, n the rotational speed, Q is the volume flow rate, H is total head and g is gravity acceleration.