Study on the Hydraulic Performance of a Turbopump Inducer

The present study focuses on the flow analysis of a turbopump inducer by performing both numerical and experimental methods to provide designers with valuable information. Global performance data (head and efficiency), and detail flow fields (outlet flow angles, pressures and velocity vectors) are measured and compared with the computational data. Generally a good agreement is obtained between both results. But some discrepancies are observed due to complex flows such as backflows at the inlet, etc. The visualization of the backflow at the inducer inlet is also conducted for the validation showing that the prediction overestimates the size of the backflow. And it is shown that the slight modification of the trailing edge shape of the inducer can affect the performance of the inducer.