• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2434-2439
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• 2008

This paper was studied on the cavitation instability of a Solution Pump Inducer in an absorption chiller-heater. Inlet pressure of LiBr and rotational speed at nominal mode are 2,800 Pa and 3,500 rpm respectively. Due to the marginal operation of available NPSH, the cavitation performance of the inducer is critical for the stable operation without the deterioration of head performance. In the study, cavitation performance and its mode of instability was investigated experimentally. Water was used as the working fluid and the test inducer was scaled up as 1.75 times for detail measurements and flow visualization. Inlet pressure was controlled by a vacuum pump. This research focused on types of cavitation instability and phenomena to investigate the possibility of harmful damage due to cavitation instability. Casing wall pressure and instantaneous inlet pressure was measured to observe the unsteady flow characteristics. Through the visualization and spectrum analysis of pressure, the occurrence region and intensity of asymmetric cavitation and cavitation surge are analyzed in the test inducer.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.94-100
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• 2014

In double-suction centrifugal pumps, it was found that cavitation instabilities occur with vibration and a periodic chugging noise. The present study attempts to identify cavitation instabilities in the double-suction centrifugal pump by the experiment and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Cavitation instabilities in the tested pump were classified into three types of instabilities. The first one, in a range of cavitation number higher than breakdown cavitation number, is cavitation surge with a violent pressure oscillation. The second one, in a range of cavitation number higher than the cavitation number of cavitation surge, is considered to be rotating cavitation and causes the pressure oscillation due to the interaction of rotating cavitation with the impeller. Last one, in a range of cavitation number higher than the cavitation number of rotating cavitation, is considered to be a surge type instability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.413-418
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• 2008

Flow instability in the rocket turbo pump system can be caused by various reasons such as valve, orifice and venturi, etc. The inception of cavitation, especially in the propellant feeding system, is the primary cause of the mass flow and pressure oscillation due to cyclic formation and depletion of cavitation. Meanwhile, the main propellant in liquid rocket engine is the cryogenic one, which is very sensitive to temperature variation, and the variation of propellant properties caused by thermodynamic effect should be accounted for in the flow analysis. The present study focuses on the formation of cryogenic cavitations by adopting IDM model suggested by Shyy and coworkers. Also, the flow instability was investigated in the downstream of orifice by using a developed numerical code. Calculation results show that cryogenic cavitations can lead to flow instability resulting in mass flow fluctuations due to pressure oscillations. And the prediction of cavitations in cryogenic fluid is of vital importance in designing feeding system of LRE.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.100-106
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• 2020

Turbopumps for liquid rocket engines are exposed to various cavitation instabilities under their operating conditions. The instabilities affect the stability of the turbopumps. To make sure of the stability of the turbopump of KSLV-II, the present work examined the characteristics of the cavitation instabilities during the turbopump assembly test. In the test, the LOx pump was operated under super-synchronous rotating cavitation and attached to uneven cavitation. In the vibration analysis of the fuel pump, the characteristic frequency by the super-synchronous cavitation of the LOx pump was clearly shown.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.40-54
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• 2009

Cavitation instabilities in turbo-machinery such as cavitation surge and rotating cavitation are usually explained by the quasi-steady characteristics of cavitation, mass flow gain factor and cavitation compliance. However, there are certain cases when it is required to take account of unsteady characteristics. As an example of such cases, cavitation surge in industrial centrifugal pump caused by backflow vortex cavitation is presented and the importance of the phase delay of backflow vortex cavitation is clarified. First, fundamental characteristics of backflow vortex structure is shown followed by detailed discussions on the energy transfer under cavitation surge in the centrifugal pump. Then, the dynamics of backflow is discussed to explain a large phase lag observed in the experiments with the centrifugal pump.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.230-239
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• 2015

The swirling flow in the draft tube of a Francis turbine can cause the flow instability and the cavitation surge and has a larger influence on hydraulic power operating system. In this paper, the cavitating flow with swirling flow in the diffuser was studied by the draft tube component experiment, the model Francis turbine experiment and the numerical simulation. In the component experiment, several types of fluctuations were observed, including the cavitation surge and the vortex rope behaviour by the swirling flow. While the cavitation surge and the vortex rope behaviour were suppressed by the aeration into the diffuser, the loss coefficient in the diffuser increased by the aeration. In the model turbine test the aeration decreased the efficiency of the model turbine by several percent. In the numerical simulation, the cavitating flow was studied using Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) with particular emphasis on understanding the unsteady characteristics of the vortex rope structure. The generation and evolution of the vortex rope structures have been investigated throughout the diffuser using the iso-surface of vapor volume fraction. The pressure fluctuation in the diffuser by numerical simulation confirmed the cavitation surge observed in the experiment. Finally, this pressure fluctuation of the cavitation surge was examined and interpreted by CFD.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.695-702
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• 2008

Flow instability in the rocket turbo pump systems can be caused by various elements such as valve, orifice and venturi and etc. The formation of cavitation specially in the propellant feeding system can trigger the mass flow and pressure oscillation due to cyclic formation and depletion of cavitations. If the cryogenic propellant are used, which is very sensitive to temperature variation, the change of propellant properties due to thermodynamic effect should be accounted for in the flow analysis. This study focuses on the formation of cryogenic cavitation adopting MUSHY IDM model suggested by Shyy and coworkers. Also, the flow instability is investigated with developed numerical code in the downstream of orifice flow. To this end, three different orifices are selected and investigated by the numerical calculation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.1099-1102
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• 2017

High frequency signals are analyzed which are measured at the inlet / outlet pipeline and pump casing during cavitation tests of the fuel pump for the liquid rocket engine. RMS values of each data are shown according to the cavitation number and compared with those of the LOx pump tests and the impact of the cavitation instability is also explored. Analogies about the cavitation number are confirmed between high frequency data of both pumps. In addition, the cavitation instability is found in all the signals and has an affect on the outlet pressure pulsation of the fuel pump.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.139-147
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• 2023

Cavitation phenomena observed during the operation of a submerged plain journal bearing (PJB) can affect bearing performance parameters such as dynamic coefficients, whirl frequency ratio, and critical mass. This study presents numerical solutions of the Reynolds equation for steadily and dynamically loaded submerged PJBs with half-Sommerfeld (HS), Reynolds, and Jakobsson-Floberg-Olsson (JFO) cavitation models when the supply pressure is larger or equal to the cavitation pressure. The loads at various eccentricity ratios are identical; however, the attitude angle is approximately 6% smaller when the eccentricity ratio is between 0.2 and 0.7 and the JFO model is used, compared to that when the Reynolds model is used. Dynamic coefficients obtained with the HS and Reynolds model show good agreement with each other, except for k_xz, which is sensitive to changes in the force normal to the rotor weight, and is attributed to the difference in the attitude angle obtained with each cavitation model. Stiffness coefficients are determined using the pressure distribution in the film, and therefore, when the JFO model is used, the direct stiffness coefficients are affected and show opposite signs for most eccentricity ratios. The mass-conservative JFO model can predict at least a 30% smaller critical mass compared to that using the HS and Reynolds models. Thus, the instability analysis results can change based on the cavitation model used in a submerged PJB. The results of this research indicate that the JFO model should be used when designing a rotor system supported by submerged PJBs.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.311-315
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• 2001

In this paper synchronous whirl of bearing is employed as control algorithm of actively controlled hydrodynamic journal bearing to suppress the whirl instability and unbalance response of a rotor-bearing system. Also, the cavitation algorithm implementing the Jakobsson-Floberg-Olsson boundary condition is adopted to predict cavitation regions in the fluid film more accurately than conventional analysis which uses the Reynolds condition. The stability and unbalance responses of a rotor-bearing system are investigated for various control gain and phase difference between the bearing and journal motion. It is shown that the unbalance response of a rotor-bearing system can be greatly improved by synchronous whirl of the bearing, and there is an optimum phase difference, which gives the minimum unbalance response of the system, at given operating condition. It is also found that the speed at onset of instability can be greatly increased by synchronous whirl of the bearing.