Numerical Study of Unsteady Cavitating Flow in an Inducer With Omega Vortex Identification

Abstract

Abstract To accurately capture the behaviors of cavitation and reveal the unsteady cavitating flow mechanism, a condensate pump inducer is numerically analyzed in a separate numerical experiment with large eddy simulation (LES) at critical cavitation number σind,c under the design point. Based on the new Omega vortex identification method, the correlation between the flow structures and cavities is clearly illustrated. Besides, the pressure fluctuations around the inducer are analyzed. Special emphasis is put on the analysis of the interactions between the cavities, turbulent fluctuations, and vortical flow structures. The Omega vortex identification method could give an overall picture of the whole cavitating flow structures to present a clear correlation between the vortices and cavities. The results show that the shear cavitation dominates the cavitation characteristics under the design point. The pure rigid rotation region mainly concentrates at the edge of the cavities while the other sheet-like cavities near the casing walls are characterized by strong turbulence fluctuations. Besides, based on the analysis of the correlation between the cavities and flow structures, the rotating cavitation under the design point may mainly be attributed to the interaction between the tip leakage vortex cavitation and the next blade.