• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.93-100
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• 2019

The cavitation of a turbopump inducer develops from the inception to a critical point, and encounters breakdown finally. In this study, we evaluated the characteristics and predictions of cavitation inception for the turbopump inducer using empirical equations. The empirical equation for the elliptical plate predicted the generation of cavitation inception of the turbopump inducer relatively well. However, in case of the marine propeller, it showed a considerable difference owing to the Reynolds number of the operating point. The cavitation inception occurred earlier as the number of blades increased. However, the solidity had no major impact on the cavitation inception because the cavitation occurred locally at the tip of the leading edge.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.1077-1079
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• 2017

The cavitation in the turbopump inducer progresses from the inception to the critical point, and finally develops to a breakdown which sharply declined in head. In this paper, we evaluated characteristics and predicted empirical equations about the cavitation inception of a turbopump inducer. The empirical equation of the cavitation inception for the elliptical plate was relatively well predicted to the turbopump inducer. However, in case of the marine propeller, it showed a big difference due to Reynolds number under the operating point.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.76-80
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to understand the cavitation phenomena in centrifugal pumps through computational fluid dynamics method. NPSH characteristic curve is measured from different flow operating conditions. Steady state, liquid-vapor homogeneous method with two equations transport turbulence model is employed to estimate the NPSH curve in centrifugal pumps. The Rayleigh-Plesset cavitation model is adapted as source term for inter-phase mass transfer in order to understand cavitation phenomena in centrifugal pumps. The cavitation incipient curve is clearly estimated at different flows operating conditions. A relationship is made between cavitation incipient and NPSH curve. Also the effects on water vapor volume fraction and pressure load distributions on the impeller blade are also described.