Measurement of Temperature Effects on Cavitation in a Turbopump Inducer

2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Junho Kim ◽  
Seung Jin Song

Temperature effects on the critical cavitation number and rotating cavitation in a turbopump inducer have been experimentally investigated in water. Static pressures upstream and downstream of the inducer have been measured to determine the cavitation performance, and cavitation instabilities have been detected using unsteady pressure sensors and a high-speed camera. Two kinds of cavitation instabilities have been identified—rotating cavitation and asymmetric attached cavitation. To quantify temperature effects, nondimensional thermal parameter has been adopted. Increasing water temperature, or increasing nondimensional thermal parameter, lowers the critical cavitation number. Increasing nondimensional thermal parameter also shifts the onset of rotating cavitation to a lower cavitation number and reduces the intensity of rotating cavitation. However, for values larger than 0.540 (340 K, 5000 rpm), the critical cavitation number and the rotating cavitation onset cavitation number become independent of the nondimensional thermal parameter. The onset of the head coefficient degradation correlates with the onset of rotating cavitation regardless of temperature.

Author(s):  
Albert Kammerer ◽  
Reza S. Abhari

Centrifugal compressors operating at varying rotational speeds, such as in helicopters or turbochargers, can experience forced response failure modes. The response of the compressors can be triggered by aerodynamic flow nonuniformities such as with diffuser-impeller interaction or with inlet distortions. The work presented here addresses experimental investigations of forced response in centrifugal compressors with inlet distortions. This research is part of an ongoing effort to develop related experimental techniques and to provide data for validation of computational tools. In this work, measurements of blade surface pressure and aerodynamic work distribution were addressed. A series of pressure sensors were designed and installed on rotating impeller blades and simultaneous measurements with blade-mounted strain gauges were performed under engine representative conditions. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first publication, which presents comprehensive experimental unsteady pressure measurements during forced response, for high-speed radial compressors. The experimental data were obtained for both resonance and off-resonance conditions with uniquely tailored inlet distortion. This paper covers aspects relating to the design of fast response pressure sensors and their installation on thin impeller blades. Additionally, sensor properties are outlined with a focus on calibration and measurement uncertainty estimations. The second part of this paper presents unsteady pressure results taken for a number of inlet distortion cases. It will be shown that the intended excitation order due to inlet flow distortion is of comparable magnitude to the second and third harmonics, which are consistently observed in all measurements. Finally, an experimental method will be outlined that enables the measurement of aerodynamic work on the blade surface during resonant crossing. This approach quantifies the energy exchange between the blade and the flow in terms of cyclic work along the blade surface. The phase angle between the unsteady pressure and the blade movement will be shown to determine the direction of energy transfer.


2020 ◽  
Vol 328 ◽  
pp. 03012
Author(s):  
Marian Bojko ◽  
Milada Kozubková ◽  
Jana Jablonská

The hydraulic equipment and elements are designed so that the flow is not significantly affected by the content of gases in the fluid. In the case of cavitation, there is a change in the volumetric amount of gas, which in water is due to the air and water vapour present, and in the case of oils, especially the air content. This phenomenon causes a significant change in the loss coefficient of the element. The problem of cavitation is solved in the literature for water flow, for other hydraulic fluids (e.g. hydraulic oils operated at different temperatures) the problem is still not solved to a sufficient extent. The article deals with the issue of cavitation in systems in which different types of liquids are used. In the introduction, the physical properties of the used liquids are evaluated, because they significantly influence the origin and development of cavitation. Subsequently, an experimental device with a transparent nozzle is described, on which the measurement. The dependence of the loss coefficient and the cavitation number on the Reynolds number is evaluated. Cavitation is evaluated by a high-speed camera, where it is possible to monitor the behaviour of the cavitation cloud.


1991 ◽  
Vol 57 (544) ◽  
pp. 3991-3996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri AOYAMA ◽  
Yoshihiro MATSUOKA ◽  
Masao YAMAMOTO ◽  
Noboru KOIKE ◽  
Takahiko SHIMADA

2014 ◽  
Vol 945-949 ◽  
pp. 914-923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Ping Yuan ◽  
Yu Wen Zhu ◽  
Ai Xiang Ge

Cavitation is one of the most important aspects that need to be considered while designing centrifugal pumps, since it is a major contributor to failure and inefficiency. In order to study the cavitating performance in high-speed centrifugal pumps under low flow rates, the pump named IN-32-32-100 with two different impellers was investigated based on numerical and experimental methods. The impeller case 1 is the impeller with six blades. The impeller case 2 is the impeller with four long and four splitter blades. The research results show that the cavities of two impellers occur at the impeller inlet. The region of developed cavities extends and the volume fraction in the blade passages gradually increases with the decrease of inlet total pressure at the flow rate of 0.5Qd. The cavities distribute asymmetrically in each blade passage and the vapor fraction of one blade passage is significantly larger compared with them of blade passages. The inner flow of the pump can be effectively improved with more uniform pressure distribution by applying splitter blades. The critical cavitation number of the impeller case 1 and impeller case 2 corresponding to the sudden head-drop point are 3.2m and 3.55m, respectively. Compared with impeller case 2, cavitating performance of the pump with impeller case 1 is better. The numerical results agree well with the experimental data, which shows that the numerical method in the present study can to some extent accurately predict the cavitating development inside the high-speed centrifugal pump.


2001 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 762-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiki Yoshida ◽  
Yoshinobu Tsujimoto ◽  
Dai Kataoka ◽  
Hironori Horiguchi ◽  
Fabien Wahl

A set of 4-bladed inducers with various amounts of cutback was tested with the aim of suppressing the rotating cavitation by applying alternate leading edge cutback. Unsteady cavitation patterns were observed by means of inlet pressure measurements and high-speed video pictures. It was found that the region with the alternate blade cavitation and asymmetric cavitation were enlarged with the increase of the amount of the cutback. As a result, the region with the rotating cavitation was diminished. At low flow rate, two types of alternate blade cavitation were found as predicted theoretically on 4-bladed inducer with smaller uneven blade length. One of them is with longer cavities on longer blades, and the other is with longer cavities on shorter blades. Switch was observed in these alternate blade cavitation patterns depending whether the cavitation number was increased or decreased. For an inducer with larger amount of cutback, the rotating cavitation and cavitation surge were almost suppressed as expected for a wide range of flow rate and cavitation number, although the cavitation performance was deteriorated. However, we should note that an asymmetric cavitation pattern occurs more easily in inducers with alternate leading edge cutback, and that the unevenness due to the cutback causes uneven blade stress.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 487
Author(s):  
Tiezhi Sun ◽  
Xiaoshi Zhang ◽  
Jianyu Zhang ◽  
Cong Wang

High-speed underwater vehicles are subjected to complex multiphase turbulent processes, such as the growth, development, shedding, and collapse of cavitation bubbles. To study the cavity evolution and pressure pulsation characteristics, in this paper, cloud cavitation over a conical axisymmetric test body with four pressure sensors is investigated. A multi-field simultaneous measurement experiment method for the natural cavitation of underwater vehicles is proposed to understand the relationship between cavity evolution and instantaneous pressure. The results show that the evolution of cloud cavitation can be mainly divided into three stages: (I) the growth process of the attached cavity, (II) the shedding process of the attached cavity, and (III) the collapse of detached cavities. The evolution of the attached cavity and collapse of the large-scale shedding cavity will cause strong pressure pulsations. It is found that the cavitation number plays an important role in cavitation evolution and pressure pulsation. Interestingly, as the cavitation number decreases, the fluctuation intensity of cavitation increases significantly and gradually presents obvious periodicity. Moreover, the unstable cavitating flow patterns are highly correlated with the time domain and frequency domain characteristics of pressure. Especially, as the cavitation number decreases, the main frequency becomes lower and the pressure band becomes more concentrated.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (6) ◽  
pp. 731-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher E. Brennen

Recent testing of high-speed cavitating turbopump inducers has revealed the existence of more complex instabilities than the previously recognized cavitating surge and rotating cavitation. This paper explores one such instability that is uncovered by considering the effect of a downstream asymmetry, such as a volute on a rotating disturbance similar to (but not identical to) that which occurs in rotating cavitation. The analysis uncovers a new instability that may be of particular concern because it occurs at cavitation numbers well above those at which conventional surge and rotating cavitation occur. This means that it will not necessarily be avoided by the conventional strategy of maintaining a cavitation number well above the performance degradation level. The analysis considers a general surge component at an arbitrary frequency ω present in a pump rotating at frequency Ω and shows that the existence of a discharge asymmetry gives rise not only to beat components at frequencies, Ω−ω and Ω+ω (as well as higher harmonics), but also to rotating as well as surge components at all these frequencies. In addition, these interactions between the frequencies and the surge and rotating modes lead to “coupling impedances” that effect the dynamics of each of the basic frequencies. We evaluate these coupling impedances and show not only that they can be negative (and thus promote instability) but also are most negative for surge frequencies just a little below Ω. This implies potential for an instability involving the coupling of a surge mode with a frequency around 0.9Ω and a low-frequency rotating mode about 0.1Ω. We also examine how such an instability would be manifest in unsteady pressure measurements at the inlet to and discharge from a cavitating pump and establish a “footprint” for the recognition of such an instability.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document