• 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.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.7 no.4 s.25
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• pp.47-52
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• 2004

Cryogenic pump test facility (CPTF) is designed and developed in KARI. Hydraulic and cavitation performance of pump and inducer in cryogenic environment can be measured. Working fluid is liquid nitrogen and operating temperature is $-197^{\circ}C$. Run tank, catch tank of liquid nitrogen and their pressurizing tank has been built and remote tank pressure control system are installed. Maximum power of driving motor is 320 kW and its maximum speed is 32000rpm. Cryogenic fluids and lubricating systems are effectively separated that long test times are acquired. Therefore hydraulic and cavitation performance can be measured accurately and effectively. Pre-cooling test of the facility was successfully accomplished. This facility will contribute greatly to the development of turbopump for KSLV.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.264-270
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• 2001

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.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.5 no.2 s.15
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• pp.15-21
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• 2002

The hydraulic performance analysis of an entire pump system composed of inducer, impeller, volute and seal for the application of turbopumps is numerically performed using three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. A quasi-steady mixing-plane method is used on the impeller/volute interface to simulate the unsteady interaction phenomena. From this work, 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 quasi-steady method. Since the volute was found to be over-designed by the pressure distribution of the volute wall, re-design of the volute has been performed, resulting in an improved performance characteristic.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.93-100
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• 2020

The turbopump of the liquid rocket engine adapts an inducer to minimize the cavitation due to the variations of the propellants supply condition. However, the inducer introduces cavitation instabilities which are well-known problems in the engine development. In this paper, operational characteristics by the cavitation instabilities are analyzed and the reliability of the engine is checked when the first stage engine of the KSLV-II is tested at the low inlet pressure conditions. The characteristic frequencies representing the cavitation instabilities of the LOx pump are clearly found in various high frequency sensor signals around the entire engine in addition to the LOx and fuel pump.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.243-249
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• 2001

Steady state flow calculations are executed for turbo-pump inducers of modem design to validate the performance of Tascflow code. Hydrodynamic performance is evaluated and structure of the passage flow and leading edge recirculation are also investigated. Calculated results show good coincidence with experimental data of static pressure performance and velocity profiles over the leading edge. Upstream recirculation, tip leakage and vortex flow at the blade tip and near leading edge are main source of pressure loss. Amount of pressure loss from the upstream to the leading edge corresponds to that of pressure loss through the whole blade. The total viscous loss is considerably large due to the strong secondary flow.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.5 no.2 s.15
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• pp.22-28
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• 2002

Steady state flow calculations are conducted for the newly-designed turbo-pump inducers to validate the performance of Tascflow code. Hydrodynamic performance is evaluated, and structures of the passage flow and leading edge recirculation are also investigated. The calculated results show good coincidence with the experimental data of the static pressure performance and velocity profiles near the leading edge. Upstream recirculation, tip leakage and vortex flow at the blade tip and near leading edge are main sources of pressure losses. Amount of pressure losses from the upstream to the leading edge corresponds to that of pressure losses through the whole blade. The total viscous losses are considerably large due to the strong secondary flow.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.307-317
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• 2017

In liquid-propellant rockets, POGO instability can occur, in which a fluctuation of propellant supply to the engine, a thrust fluctuation, and a structural vibration are coupled. For the prediction of this instability, it is required to provide dynamic characteristics of the pump represented as the transfer matrix correlating the upstream and downstream pressure and flow rate fluctuations. In the present study, the flow rate fluctuation is evaluated from the fluctuation of pressure difference at the different locations assuming that the fluctuation is caused by the inertia of the flow rate fluctuation. The experiments were performed in some flow conditions, and it was shown that the tendencies of dynamic characteristics are related to excitation frequencies, cavitation numbers and flow rate coefficients.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.183-190
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• 2004

The performance analysis of a fuel pump for a liquid rocket engine has been performed numerically on its design condition. A commercial three-dimensional Navier-Stokes flow solver has been used for the computation. All of the fuel pump components - inducer, impeller, volute and secondary flow passages - are included in computation for the accurate estimation of the leakage flow rate which affects the performance and axial thrust. A pitchwise-averaged mixing plane method was used on the boundaries among the fuel pump components to save computational time. The predicted overall performance satisfied the design requirement. However, the axial thrust exceeded a permissible limit. In order to reduce the axial thrust, the secondary flow passage design has been changed. With this change, the axial thrust level has been reduced to 30% as compared with the original value.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.1093-1098
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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 LOx pump for the liquid rocket engine. RMS values of data are shown according to the cavitation number. RMS values of the synchronous frequency, its harmonic frequencies and frequencies of cavitation instabilities are also calculated. The pressure pulsations of the inlet and outlet pipeline are affected by cavitation instabilities. 3x component is predominant in the outlet pulsation sensor since 3x component generated at the inducer is amplified at the impeller. The cavitation instability is also found at the accelerometer signal of the casing.