Numerical Studies on the Performance Prediction of a Turbopump System for Liquid Rocket Engines

액체로켓용 터보펌프 성능예측에 대한 수치해석적 연구

The hydraulic performance analysis of an entire pump system composed of an inducer, impeller, volute and seal for the application on turbopumps is performed using three-dimensional Wavier-Stokes equations. A quasi-steady mixing-plane method is used on the impeller/volute interface to simulate the unsteady interaction phenomena. From this wort the effects of each component on the pump performance are investigated at design and off-design conditions through the analysis of flow structures and loss mechanisms. The computational results are in a good agreement with experimental ones in terms of the headrise and efficiency even though very complex flow structures are present. It is found that the asymmetric pressure distribution along the volute wall constitutes the main reason of the difference between experimental and computational results due to the limitation of the applying the quasi-steady method. Since the volute was found to be over-designed according to the pressure distribution of the volute wall, redesign of the volute has been performed resulting in an improved performance characteristic.