Abstract
The cavitation characteristics and load distributions of the inducer have great influences on the vibration characteristics of the rotating system and the whole pump. In this paper, the numerical simulations of the flow field within different inducers were carried out based on the Shear Stress Transfer (SST) k–ω turbulence model combined with the hybrid cavitation model to investigate the effects of blade numbers on the internal flow and cavitation characteristics of the model inducers. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results obtained using a closed inducer performance test rig to verify the accuracy and applicability of the numerical simulation method. The comparisons show that the three-blade inducer has better cavitation performances than the two-blade one. The simulation results of the bubble and load distributions suggest that the cavitation at low flow rates within the two model inducers occurs mainly near the leading edge of the blade tip, but at the design flow rates or higher flow rates, the cavitation within the two-blade inducer occurs along the suction surfaces near the inlet and the cavitation within the three-blade inducer occurs mainly on the inlet suction surfaces near the blade root.
Highlights
Centrifugal pumps are important equipment of nuclear power plants and petrochemical factories
The simulation results were consistent with the experimental ones with an error of less than 3% at the design point
The comparisons demonstrate that the cavitation at low flow rates within the two model inducers occurs mainly near the leading edge of the blade tip, but at high flow rates, the cavitation within the two-blade inducer occurs along the suction surfaces near the inlet and the cavitation within the three-blade inducer occurs mainly on the inlet suction surfaces near the blade root
Summary
Centrifugal pumps are important equipment of nuclear power plants and petrochemical factories. Cheng and Jia studied the effect of the dip angle of the inducer blade section in the meridian plane on the cavitation performance of the high-speed centrifugal pump based on the RNG k–ε turbulence model and Zwart–Gerber–Belamri cavitation model. The results showed that the dip angle of the inducer blade has a weak influence on the external performance of the high-speed centrifugal pump and deteriorates when the angle exceeds a certain extent They investigated the influence of the axial matching between the inducer and suction chamber on the cavitation performance of the centrifugal pump and found that the cavitation performance is improved with the increase in the axial indentation degree, but it tends to be stable after reaching a certain extent.. Detailed analyses on the bubble distributions, bubble volume fraction distributions within the inducer, and load distributions on the blades are conducted to investigate the cavitation process within the inducers and the effects of blade numbers on the internal flow characteristics of the inducers
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