Experimental Investigations Concerning Influences on Cavitation Inception at an Axial Test Pump

The aim of this work is to demonstrate the significant influence of liquid property on cavitation inception. The experimental results were obtained on two different test rigs, one with an axial test pump (n_S = 180 min⁻¹ in European Units or 9000 min⁻¹ in US Units) and another one with a single hydrofoil configuration. To realize a variation of the gas content (nuclei content and distribution of nuclei) of the test water a special device, a so-called “micro bubble generator”, was developed and installed in the test rigs. The measuring of the tensile strength of the test water was also one point of the investigations of this work.