Simulation of Cavitating Inducer in Rocket Engine Turbopump

Abstract

CFD simulations were applied to cavitating flows around an inducer of a liquid rocket engine turbopump. Unsteady simulations were performed for the full 3D model of an inducer using a cavitation model. The inducer has been tested with water in the cavitation tunnel at JAXA-KSPL to examine suction performance and unsteady cavitation phenomena such as rotating cavitation and cavitation surge. Experiments were conducted under various flow conditions to examine a break-down point of the suction performance and unsteady cavitation phenomena. They have suggested that the casing geometry affected the onset of unsteady cavitation phenomena. Simulations were, therefore, performed for various cavitation numbers. The steady state was firstly calculated without a cavitation model, and then the unsteady calculation was done with the bubble two-phase flow model as a cavitation model. The effect of different model parameters on cavity structure was also examined. In the calculated results, it was clearly observed that the cavity structure grew on the blade surface and accompanied with vortices. These cavities showed dynamic change of their shapes as the rotation of the inducer. The calculated head coefficient showed decrease for small cavitation numbers with similar gradient to that observed in the experiment.