Study of Cavitation Characteristics of a Cryogenic Pump by Computational Fluid Dynamic Methods

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of cavitation characteristics of a centrifugal cryogenic pump. Hydrodynamic simulation of the fluid flow in the wet part of the pump was carried out in order to determine the output parameters of the pump. A critical increase in the temperature of liquid helium, corresponding to the beginning of cavitation in the pump, was determined. A cavitation performance of the pump was built under given operating conditions and a critical NPSH was determined.