Effect of Tip Clearance on the Performance of a Three-Bladed Axial Inducer

Torre, Lucio; Pasini, Angelo; Cervone, Angelo; Pace, Giovanni; Miloro, Piero; d’Agostino, Luca

doi:10.2514/1.b34067

Cited by 35 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…To use the high-performance region effectively, it is necessary to allow controllable cavitation to occur at the inducer. A considerable number of studies has been conducted to investigate this effect, but they have mainly focused on water cavitation [1][2][3].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Visualization of Cryogenic Backflow Vortex Cavitation with Thermodynamic Effects

Ito

Tsunoda

Kurishita

et al. 2016

Journal of Propulsion and Power

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The world's first test facility that allows the visualization of cavitation on a rotating inducer in both cryogen and water was used for comparing the cavitation features in liquid nitrogen at 77.9 K and water at 292.5 and 333.5 K. The test inducer was a triple-threaded helical one with a diameter of 65.3 mm and a rotational speed range of 3500-6000 rpm. The backflow vortex cavitation on the rotating inducer was quantitatively measured in the considered fluids. From the results, it was inferred that the backflow vortex cavitation orbital rate and its orbital diameter around the inducer axis depend on the head coefficient but are almost independent of the cavitation number and kind of fluid. Furthermore, the diameter of each backflow vortex cavitation column depends on the head coefficient, cavitation number, and kind of fluid. At the same head coefficient and cavitation number, the diameter in liquid nitrogen is 2.4 times smaller than that in water because of the thermodynamic effects. Moreover, the appearance of the cavitation is "foggy" in nitrogen and "foamy" in water. This difference can be explained by the maximum stable size of cavitation bubbles derived from the critical Weber number theory. Based on this theory, each cavitation bubble at the tip vortex regions in nitrogen is four times smaller than that in water.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Visualization of Cryogenic Backflow Vortex Cavitation with Thermodynamic Effects

Ito

Tsunoda

Kurishita

et al. 2016

Journal of Propulsion and Power

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“…It was found that for the inducer with a smaller inlet blade angle and a larger sweep, RC at the design and larger flow coefficients was avoided. Torre, et al (2011) experimentally illustrated the influence of the tip clearance on RC on a threebladed axial inducer. It was observed that the maximum amplitude of the pressure oscillation at the frequency of RC decreases with an increasing tip clearance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geometrical Optimization of an Inducer with Respect to Rotating Cavitation Generated Radial Forces by using an Orthogonal Experiment

Zhang

Chen³

et al. 2018

JAFM

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It is known that rotating cavitation (RC) characteristic of an inducer can greatly influence the safe and stable operation of a liquid rocket. In this paper, the possibility of geometrically optimizing an inducer with respect to RC generated radial forces was discussed. The characteristics of the inducer was firstly evaluated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which was validated against experimental results. Then by employing an orthogonal experiment combined with CFD, influences of geometric parametric combinations on RC were investigated. Primary influencing factors and the best parametric combination have been obtained through a variance analysis. Comparing with the original inducer, a significant improvement in the cavitation performance, as well as the radial force characteristic of the optimized inducer has been achieved. Pressure distribution on the blades have been analyzed to reveal the related flow mechanism. This work provides a feasible and effective route in engineering practice to optimize the characteristic of RC generated radial forces for an inducer.

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“…8 Tabar and Poursharifi 9 have studied the cavitation inception in an axial flow pump and figured out that the tip sharpness and geometry are the most important parameters that affect the cavitation area. Torre et al 10 have also figured out that different tip clearances can lead to different cavitating behaviours. The mixed-flow pump has geometric similarities with axial flow pumps and inducers especially at impeller region, so the tip clearance should also be concerned and studied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pressure fluctuation and flow pattern of a mixed-flow pump with different blade tip clearances under cavitation condition

Tan

Liu

et al. 2017

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

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Cavitation phenomenon has strong transient characteristics and is highly influenced by geometric structure. In this study, the cavitation performance with influence of blade tip clearance for a mixed-flow pump is studied using the renormalization group (RNG) k-e turbulence model and the Zwart-Gerber-Belamri cavitation model. The dominant frequency and maximum amplitude values at non-cavitation condition and different cavitation conditions are compared and associated with flow field features. The results show that the dominant frequency value under incipient cavitation and critical cavitation is 3.2f i and when the cavitation is severe, the frequency value changes to 3.5f i . Then, the influence of tip clearance width on cavitation performance of the mixed-flow pump is also discussed. The results show that the increase in tip clearance will significantly aggravate the performance drop of the pump under cavitation conditions. The critical net positive suction head value increases in 4.79% of the value under no-tip clearance condition. At the same time, by the inner flow field observation and analysis, the morphological of cavitation bubbles is also changed, and the cavitation bubbles tend to attach to the blade suction side and the attachment length increases as the tip clearance increases.

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Effect of Tip Clearance on the Performance of a Three-Bladed Axial Inducer

Cited by 35 publications

References 26 publications

Experimental Visualization of Cryogenic Backflow Vortex Cavitation with Thermodynamic Effects

Experimental Visualization of Cryogenic Backflow Vortex Cavitation with Thermodynamic Effects

Geometrical Optimization of an Inducer with Respect to Rotating Cavitation Generated Radial Forces by using an Orthogonal Experiment

Pressure fluctuation and flow pattern of a mixed-flow pump with different blade tip clearances under cavitation condition

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