Stall is a common phenomenon in centrifugal pumps under low-flow conditions; it has a significant impact on fatigue and can even damage mechanical structural components. Computational fluid dynamics was used to perform high-precision numerical calculations to describe multiple operating conditions in the computational domain. The accuracy of these numerical simulations was verified by comparing the results with the single-flow channel flow patterns captured by time-resolved particle image velocimetry and the external characteristics of the centrifugal pump. On this basis, the unsteady spatiotemporal evolution of the vortex structure under stall conditions and the kinetic energy conversion relationship were determined. The stall vortex under the rotating stall condition has a relative motion with the impeller in the circumferential direction between channels, with the characteristic propagation frequency f_cs = 0.71 Hz. For stationary stall conditions, the critical stall condition has a greater kinetic energy dissipation compared with the deep stall condition, with energy differences being more than three times larger at the blade leading edge, where the stall vortex is formed.

In this paper, to study the effect of dynamic and static interference of clearance flow in fluid machinery caused by changes in rotational speed, the model was simplified to a rotor-stator system cavity flow. Investigating the flow characteristics in the cavity by changing the rotor speed of the rotor-stator system is of considerable significance. ANSYS-CFX was applied to numerically simulate the test model and the results were compared with the experimental results of the windage torque of the rotor-stator system. The inlet flow rate and geometric model remained unchanged. With an increase in the rotating Reynolds number, the shear stress on the rotor wall gradually increased, and the maximum gradient was within l^* < 0.15. In addition to the shear stress, the tangential Reynolds stress R_rθ contributed partly to the torque on the rotor wall. The swirling vortex formed by entrainment in the cavity of the rotor-stator system tended to separate at Re_Φ= 3.53 × 10⁶. As the rotating Reynolds number continued to increase, the secondary vortex finally separated completely. The strength of the vortex in the rotor turbulent boundary layer decreased with an increase in the rotating speed, but the number of vortex cores increased with the increase of speed. Depending on the application of the fluid machine, controlling the rotating speed within a reasonable range can effectively improve the characteristics of the clearance flow.