Abstract
A high-speed centrifugal pump with a splitter-blade inducer is investigated in this work. The flow with rotating cavitation is numerically simulated, external characteristics are subjected to experimental tests, and the internal flow is visualized. These procedures are conducted to obtain the pressure, velocity, and vapor volume fraction distribution in the inducer and the impeller of the centrifugal pump. Bubble occurrence, development, and collapse are also observed. The predicted H-Q and η-Q curves agree with the experimental results of external characteristics. The calculated vapor volume fraction also agrees with the experimental results obtained from the visualization system. The mechanism of bubble evolution and the anti-cavitation performance of the high-speed centrifugal pump with a splitter-blade inducer are clearly elucidated.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Y. D. Choi, J. Kurokawa and H. Imamura, Suppression of cavitation in inducers by j-grooves, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 129 (1) (2007) 15–22.
Y.j. Li and F.j. Wang, Numerical investigation of performance of an axial-flow pump with inducer, Journal of hydrodynamics, 19 (6) (2007) 705–711.
K. Okita, H. Ugajin and Y. Matsumoto, Numerical analysis of the influence of the tip clearance flows on the unsteady cavitating flows in a three dimensional inducer, Journal of Hydrodynamics, 21 (1) (2009) 34–40.
Y. A. Semenov, A. Fujii and Y. Tsujimoto, Rotating choke in cavitating turbo-pump inducer, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 126 (1) (2004) 87–93.
B. Pouffary, R. F. Patella, J. L. Reboud and P. A. Lambert, Numerical analysis of cavitation instabilities in inducer blade cascade, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 130 (4) (2008) 041302.
S. Kim, C. Choi, J. Kim, J. Park and J. Baek, Tip clearance effects on cavitation evolution and head breakdown in turbopump inducer, Journal of Propulsion and Power, 29 (6) (2013) 1357–1366.
K. Lee, J. Choi and S. Kang, Cavitation performance and instability of a two-bladed inducer, Journal of Propulsion and Power, 28 (6) (2012) 1168–1175.
Y. Iga, K. Hashizume and Y. Yoshida, Numerical analysis of three types of cavitation surge in cascade, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 133 (7) (2011) 071102.
R. Campos-Amezcua, S. Kehelladi, F. Bakir, Z. Mazur Czerwiec, C. Sarraf and R. Rey, Numerical analysis of unsteady cavitating flow in an axial inducer, Journal of Power and Energy, 224 (A2) (2010) 223–238.
Y. Tamura and Y. Matsumoto, Improvement of bubble model for cavitating flow simulations, Journal of Hydrodynamics, Ser. B, 21 (1) (2009) 41–46.
Y. Yoshida, Y. Tsujimoto, D. Kataoka, H. Horiguchi and F. Wahl, Effects of alternate leading edge cutback on unsteady cavitation in 4-bladed inducers, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 123 (4) (2001) 762–770.
Y. Yoshida, M. Eguchi, T. Motomura, M. Uchiumi, H. Kure and Y. Maruta, Rotordynamic forces acting on threebladed inducer under super synchronous/synchronous rotating cavitation, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 132 (6) (2010) 061105.
N. Tani, N. Yamanishi and Y. Tsujimoto, Influence of flow coefficient and flow structure on rotational cavitation in inducer, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 134 (2) (2012) 706–714.
H. Horiguchi, Y. Semenov, M. Nakano and Y. Tsujimoto, Linear stability analysis of the effects of camber and blade thickness on cavitation instabilities in inducer, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 128 (3) (2006) 430–438.
H. Horiguchi, S. Arai, J. Fukutomi, Y. Nakase and Y. Tsujimoto, Quasi-three-dimensional analysis of cavitation in an inducer, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 126 (5) (2004) 709–715.
T. Kimura, Y. Yoshida, T. Hashimoto and M. Shimagaki, Numerical simulation for vortex structure in a turbopump inducer: Close relationship with appearance of cavitation instabilities, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 130 (5) (2008) 051104.
S. S. Hong, D. J. Kim, J. S. Kim, C. H. Choi and J. Kim, Study on inducer and impeller of a centrifugal pump for a rocket engine turbopump, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 227 (C2) (2013) 311–319.
C. E. Brennen, A review of the dynamics of cavitating pumps, Journal of Fluids Engineering-Transactions of the Asme, 135 (6) (2013) 061301.
X. W. Luo, W. Wei, B. Ji, Z. B. Pan, W. C. Zhou and H. Y. Xu, Comparison of cavitation prediction for a centrifugal pump with or without volute casing, Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, 27(6) (2013) 1643–1648.
S. Park and S. H. Rhee, Numerical analysis of the threedimensional cloud cavitating flow around a twisted hydrofoil, Fluid Dynamics Research, 45 (1) (2013) 015502.
H. L. Liu, J. Wang, Y. Wang, H. Zhang and H. Q. Huang, Influence of the empirical coefficients of cavitation model on predicting cavitating flow in the centrifugal pump, International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, 6 (1) (2014) 119–131.
B. Ji,, X. W. Luo, R. E. A. Arndt and Y. L. Wu, Numerical simulation of three dimensional cavitation shedding dynamics with special emphasis on cavitation-vortex interaction, Ocean Eng, 87 (2014) 64–77.
B. Ji, X. W. Luo, Y. L. Wu, X. X. Peng and Y. L. Duan, Numerical analysis of unsteady cavitating turbulent flow and shedding horse-shoe vortex structure around a twisted hydrofoil, International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 51 (2013) 33–43.
B. Ji, X. Luo, X. Wang, X. Peng, Y. Wu and H. Xu, Unsteady numerical simulation of cavitating turbulent flow around a highly skewed model marine propeller, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 133 (1) (2011) 011102.
R. Campos-Amezcua, S. Khelladi, Z. Mazur-Czerwiec, F. Bakir, A. Campos-Amezcua and R. Rey, Numerical analysis of unsteady cavitating flow in an axial inducer, Journal of Power and Energy, 227 (8) (2013) 858–868.
D. A. Huang, Y. Q. Zhuang and R. Z. Cai, A computational method for cavitational flows based on energy conservation, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 221 (11) (2007) 1333–1338.
A. K. Singhal, M. M. Athavale, H. Y. Li and Y. Jiang, Mathematical basis and validation of the full cavitation model, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 124 (3) (2002) 617–624.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Recommended by Associate Editor Shin Hyung Rhee
XiaoMei Guo received her Ph.D. from Zhejiang Science and Technology University. Her research interests include multi-phase flow in fluid machinery, flow mechanism in high-speed pumps, and design optimization of fluid machines.
ZuChao Zhu is currently a professor and Ph.D. candidate supervisor in the Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Fluid Transmission Technology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, China. His main research interests include fluid machinery and engineering, and fluid power transmission and control.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guo, X., Zhu, L., Zhu, Z. et al. Numerical and experimental investigations on the cavitation characteristics of a high-speed centrifugal pump with a splitter-blade inducer. J Mech Sci Technol 29, 259–267 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-1232-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-1232-x