Characterization of Rotating Cavitation in a High Speed Inducer of Liquid Rocket Engine

Abstract

Rotating cavitation is one of the most important problems in the development of modern high performance rocket pump inducers. In this paper, a numerical simulation of rotating cavitation phenomenon in a 2D blade cascade of liquid rocket engine inducer was carried out using a mixture model based on Rayleigh-Plesset equation. The purpose is to investigate the characterization of rotating cavitation in a high speed inducer. The results show that when sub-synchronous rotating cavitation occurs, the speed for the length of the blade surface cavitation is lower than the speed frequency of rotation shaft with the same direction. The external aspect is that the pressure at the upstream of blades changes synchronous. Thus, the generation of sub-synchronous rotating cavitation is closely related to the changes of flow angel which caused by the flow fluctuations. Hence, elimination of the flow rate redistribution among the flow channel can effectively suppress the occurrence of this phenomenon.