Cavitation Instabilities During the Development Testing of a Liquid Oxygen Pump

Abstract

Inducers are critical to the minimization of the degradation of liquid oxygen pumps and the maximization of the thrust-to-weight ratio of liquid rocket engines, but create cavitation instabilities that have adverse effects on their reliabilities. To examine the cavitation instabilities that arose during the development testing of a liquid oxygen pump that uses water and liquid oxygen as its working media, accelerometers were employed instead of pressure transducers, which are complicated to install. The supersynchronous rotating cavitation and asymmetric cavitation of the pump were characterized by analyzing the signals from the accelerometers, and these results were found to be in good agreement with those of previous studies. Supersynchronous rotating cavitation was found to occur in the tests of both propellants, whereas asymmetric cavitation was found to be dominant in the liquid oxygen test.