A Study on Back Flow Structure in a 2-Bladed Helical Inducer at a Partial Flow Rate

The attachment of inducer upstream of main impeller is an effective method to improve the suction performance of turbopump. However, various types of cavitation instabilities are known to occur even at the designed flow rate as well as in the partial flow rate region. The cavitation surge occurring at partial flow rates is known to be strongly associated with the inlet back flow. In the present study, in order to understand the detailed structure of internal flow of inducer, we firstly carried out the experimental and numerical studies of non-cavitating flow, focusing on the flow field near the inlet throat section and inside the blade passage of a two bladed inducer at a partial flow rate. The steady flow simulation with cavitation model was also made to investigate the difference of the flow field between in the cavitating and non-cavitating conditions.