Numerical study on cavitating flow-induced vibration of liquid rocket engine inducer

Abstract

The cavitating flow-induced vibrations have become one of the major issues for the operation safety and stability of the liquid rocket engine. The objective of this paper is to numerically investigate the cavitating flow around a four-blade inducer, with focus on the cavitating flow-induced vibration characteristics. In the numerical simulation, the curvature correction turbulence model and the Zwart cavitation model is used for the simulation of the flow field. The loose coupled method is adopted for the prediction of the fluid structure interaction, including the calculation of the fluid forces based on the multiphase fluid dynamics, computation of the structural deformation via the governing equation of the structural motion, and then the update the fluid and structure mesh. The results showed that good agreement has been obtained between the experimental and numerical results. The reverse flow vortex cavitation develops and rotates with the blade, but with a much lower rotational speed than that of the blade. The vibration of the hydrocone is mainly affected by the blade rotation of the inducer, and the blade vibration is mainly affected by the reverse flow vortex cavitation