• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.50-57
• /
• 2010

The attachment of inducer in front of main impeller is a powerful method to improve cavitation performance. Cavitation surge oscillation, however, often occurs at partial flow rate and extremely low suction pressure. As the cavitation surge oscillation with low frequency of about 10 Hz occurs in a close relation between the inlet backflow cavitation and the growth of blade cavity into the throat section of blade passage, one method of installing an axi-asymmetrical plate upstream of inducer has been proposed to suppress the oscillation. The inlet flow distortion due to the axi-asymmetrical plate makes different elongations of cavities on all blades, which prevent the flow from becoming simultaneously unstable at all throat sections. In the present study, changes of the suppression effects with the axial distance between the inducer inlet and the plate and the changes with the blockage ratios of plate area to the cross-sectional area of inducer inlet are investigated for helical inducers with tip blade angles of $8^{\circ}$ and $14^{\circ}$. Then a conceivable application will be proposed to suppress the cavitation surge oscillation by installing axi-asymmetrical inlet plate.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.122-128
• /
• 2010

The attachment of inducer in front of main impeller is a powerful method to improve cavitation performance; however, cavitation surge oscillation with low frequency occurs with blade cavity growing to each throat section of blade passage simultaneously. Then, one conceptual method of installing suction axi-asymmetrical plate has been proposed so as to keep every throat passage away from being unstable at once, and the effect on suppression of the oscillation were investigated. In the present study, cavitation behaviors in the inducer is observed with distributing multi-cameras circumferentially, recording simultaneously and reconstructing multi-photos on one plane field as moving a linear cascade. Observed results are utilized for discussion with other measuring results as casing wall pressure distribution. Then the suppression mechanism of oscillation by installing axi-asymmetrical inlet plate will be clarified in more details.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.137-149
• /
• 2010

The purpose of the present research is to suppress cavitation instabilities by using a circumferential groove. The circumferential groove was designed based on CFD so that the tip leakage vortex is trapped by the groove and does not interact with the next blade. Experimental results show that the groove can suppress rotating cavitation, asymmetric cavitation and cavitation surge. However, weak instabilities with higher frequency could not be suppressed by the groove. From the analysis of pressure pattern similar to that for rotor-stator interaction, it was found that the higher frequency components are caused by the interaction of backflow vortices with the inducer blades.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2005.12a
• /
• pp.776-781
• /
• 2005

Cavitation is the most serious problem caused in developing high-speed turbopump, and use of an inducer is often made to avoid cavitation in main impeller. Thus, the inducer always operates under the worst condition of cavitation. If it could be possible to control and suppress cavitation in the inducer by some new device, it would also be possible to suppress cavitation occurring in all types of pumps. The purpose of our present study is to develop a new effective method of controlling and suppressing cavitation in an inducer using shallow grooves, named as "J-Groove", J-Groove is installed on the casing wall near the blade tip to use the pressure difference between high pressure region and low pressure region in the axial direction at the inlet of the inducer. The results show that proper combination of backward-swept inducer with J-Groove improves suction performance of turbopump remarkably in the range of partial flow rate as well as designed flow rate. The rotating backflow cavitation occurring in the range of low flow rate and the cavitation surge occurring in the vicinity of the best efficiency point can be almost fully suppressed by installing J-Groove.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.29 no.11 s.242
• /
• pp.1239-1247
• /
• 2005

Cavitation is the most serious problem in developing high-speed turbopump, and inducer is often used to avoid cavitation in main impeller. Thus, inducer is always operating in the worst .cavitation condition. If it is possible to control and suppress cavitation in inducer by some new device, it might be possible to suppress cavitation occurring in any type of pumps. The purpose of present study is to develop a new effective method of controlling and suppressing cavitation in inducer using shallow grooves, which is named 'J-Groove'. J-Groove is installed on the casing wall near the blade tip to use the pressure difference between high pressure region and low pressure region of the inducer in an axial direction. The results show that proper combination of backward-swept inducer with J-Groove improves suction performance of turbopump remarkably in the range of partial flow rate as well as designed flow rate. The rotating backflow cavitation occurring in the range of low flow rate and the cavitation surge occurring in the vicinity of the best efficiency point can be almost suppressed by installing J-Groove.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.618-626
• /
• 2012

Suppression of abnormal flow phenomena in the Francis hydro turbine is very important to improve the turbine performance. Especially, as cavitation and cavitation surge makes serious problems when the turbine is operated in the range of partial flow rate, optimum method of suppressing the abnormal flow characteristics is required necessarily. Moreover, as swirl flow in the draft tube of the Francis turbine decreases pressure at the inlet of the draft tube, suppression of the swirl flow can be an useful method of suppressing the occurrence of cavitation. In order to clarifying the possibility of suppressing the swirl flow by J-Groove in the draft tube, a series of CFD analysis has been conducted in the range of partial load, designed condition and excessive flow rate of a Francis turbine. A kind of J-Groove is designed and applied to the draft tube of the Francis hydro turbine model. The pressure contours, circumferential velocity vectors and vortex core regions in the draft tube are compared by the conditions with or without J-Groove. In addition, a group of data about the velocity in the draft is presented to show the influence of J-Groove.