Operating context
In many industrial sectors, multistage centrifugal pumps play an essential role in moving fluids at high pressure. They are used in applications where reliability, energy efficiency and equipment availability are critical to keeping operations running.
For pump manufacturers, plant managers, maintenance managers and reliability leads, higher pressure requirements are often a major challenge. Installed equipment must meet new operating demands, while replacing it means significant costs, production downtime and integration constraints.
That is why Technosub brought in Optis Engineering to optimize the hydraulic performance of an existing multistage centrifugal pump without changing how it was integrated into the customer’s system.
The Challenge
Increasing the pressure of a centrifugal pump is not just a matter of raising its speed or swapping out a few components.
In a multistage pump, hydraulic interactions between stages, recirculation and secondary losses directly affect the equipment’s actual performance. These phenomena are difficult to quantify without advanced digital tools.
For manufacturers and industrial operators, this can lead to:
✔ insufficient pumping capacity to keep up with evolving demands;
✔ reduced energy efficiency;
✔ higher operating costs;
✔ lower equipment availability;
✔ major capital investments to replace pumps;
✔ production downtime during replacement work.
The objective was clear: significantly increase the head and efficiency of the existing pump without changing its integration footprint or replacing the equipment.
Project Objectives
The mandate was to develop an optimization approach that would maximize the hydraulic potential of a multistage centrifugal pump already in service.
For Optis engineers, every improvement had to keep the pump compatible with existing installations while meeting the customer’s performance requirements.
Key project goals included:
✔ increasing total head (pressure);
✔ improving hydraulic efficiency;
✔ reducing internal energy losses;
✔ optimizing flow between stages;
✔ preserving the pump’s mechanical integration;
✔ avoiding full equipment replacement;
✔ extending the service life of existing assets;
✔ delivering a retrofit solution that can easily be replicated on other models.
Engineering Approach
Optimizing hydraulic performance without replacing the equipment
At Optis Engineering, industrial pump optimization starts with an in-depth understanding of the hydraulic phenomena that limit the equipment’s actual performance.
Rather than recommending a pump replacement or simply oversizing, our team took an engineering approach based on advanced numerical simulation.
A complete CFD model of the multistage centrifugal pump made it possible to analyze precisely:
✔ interstage hydraulic losses;
✔ recirculation;
✔ internal flow patterns;
✔ the areas responsible for efficiency losses.
This analysis formed the basis for a targeted optimization of the internal geometry, improving performance without modifying the customer’s installation.
Solution Developed
A high-value retrofit optimization
Using the CFD simulation results, Optis engineers designed a new internal geometry to optimize the hydraulic performance of the existing pump.
This retrofit approach offers several advantages:
✔ no full equipment replacement;
✔ no major changes to the existing integration;
✔ significantly improved hydraulic performance;
✔ lower capital expenditures (CAPEX);
✔ minimal downtime during installation work.
Without advanced digital tools, these gains would have been virtually impossible to achieve through empirical adjustments alone.
Results
The optimizations proposed by Optis Engineering were first validated through numerical simulation, then fully confirmed during bench testing at Technosub’s facility.
The results demonstrate the robustness of the engineering approach.
20% increase in pump head
Optimizing the internal geometry significantly increased the available pressure without replacing the existing pump.
For industrial operators, this improvement makes it possible to meet new operating requirements while keeping existing infrastructure in place.
10-point efficiency gain
Improved hydraulic efficiency directly reduces energy consumption and the operating costs associated with pumping.
Full validation of CFD simulations
Performance predicted in simulation was fully confirmed on the test bench, demonstrating the accuracy of the numerical models developed by Optis Engineering.
A competitive, easily scalable solution
With this optimization, Technosub now has a pump that delivers significantly higher performance while retaining its existing platform.
This approach also provides a solid foundation for optimizing other centrifugal pump models in the product line.
What Sets Optis Engineering Apart
Optimizing a multistage centrifugal pump takes more than experience or empirical adjustments.
At Optis Engineering, we combine:
✔ advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation;
✔ analysis of complex internal flows;
✔ hydraulic optimization;
✔ mechanical engineering and prototyping;
✔ hands-on expertise based on years of field support to our mining and industrial customers
This approach allows us to turn technical constraints into competitive advantages, with solutions that improve performance, energy efficiency and profitability, all at once.
Conclusion
This case study shows that it is possible to significantly increase the performance of a multistage centrifugal pump without replacing the existing equipment.
By combining advanced numerical simulation, hydraulic optimization and engineering expertise, Optis Engineering helped Technosub turn an operational constraint into a competitive advantage.
This approach paves the way for a new generation of pumps enabling further reduction in capital costs and extending the service life of industrial assets.
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