• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2013

The application of contra-rotating rotors for higher specific speed pump has been proposed in our studies, which is in principle effective for reducing the rotational speed and/or the pump size under the same specification of conventional axial flow pump. In the previous experiments of our prototype, the cavitation inception at the tip region of the rear rotor rather than that of the front rotor and the strong potential interaction from the suction surface of the rear rotor blade to the pressure surface of the front one were observed, indicating the possibility to further improve the pump performance by optimizing rotational speed combination between the two rotors. The present research aims at the design of rear rotor with lower rotational speed. Considering the fact that the incoming flow velocity defects at the tip region of the rear rotor, an integrated inflow model of 'forced vortex' and 'free vortex' is employed. The variation of maximum camber location from hub to tip as well as other related considerations are also taken into account for further performance improvement. The ideas cited above are separately or comprehensively applied in the design of three types of rear rotor, which are subsequently simulated in ANSYS CFX to evaluate the related pump performance and therefore the whole low speed design idea. Finally, the experimental validation is carried out on one type to offer further proofs for the availability of the whole design method.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.235-242
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• 2011

An application of contra-rotating rotors, in which a rear rotor is in tandem with a front one and these rotors rotate in the opposite direction each other, has been proposed against a demand for developing higher specific speed axial flow pump. One prototype rotors, which we have designed with a conventional method, has given the positive slope of head characteristic curve especially in the rear rotor. It is necessary to understand the internal flow behavior in the rear rotor to establish the design guideline for achieving higher and more reliable performance. In the present study, we carried out the experimental investigations of the internal flow field of the rear rotor, especially at the partial flow rate, by Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) for the main flow and the limiting streamlines observation on rotor surfaces for the boundary layer flows.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.282-285
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• 1997

The torque efficiency of oil hydraulic pump is an important factor for it's performance characteristics. A study on the performance test method of oil hydraulic pump is based on test standard, but there is to be desired an study for double or tandem type oil hydraulic piston pump. So in this study present a test method on the tandem pump for torque efficiency and analysis method of the results.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.46-50
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• 2012

A high-speed centrifugal pump requires more attention to the control of its axial thrust due to the high discharge pressure than a conventional industrial pump. Vanes employed toward the rear cavity of the impeller can be an effective device to control the axial thrust of the pump. The vanes disturb circumferential flow of the cavity and it can modify the axial force acting on the impeller. In this paper, three types of vanes are installed in the high-speed centrifugal pump for liquid rocket engines and the thrust of the pump is measured with an additional thrust measurement unit. According to the results, shapes of cavity vanes have effects on the axial thrust of the pump. As the height of vanes increases, the outlet pressure of the rear floating ring seal decreases which results in a decrease of the thrust. On the other hand, head of the pump is almost same regardless of cavity vanes. Also, the pressure drop of the bypass pipeline increases when vanes are removed.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.253-261
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• 2020

In this paper, we present an experimental investigation of the frequency characteristics and a visual inspection of an oxidizer pump with a modified rear-floating ring seal for a 7-tonf turbopump. An oxidizer pump typically operates at high rotational speeds and under cryogenic conditions. Despite its low hydraulic efficiency, the floating ring seal is frequently employed as a leakage control solution for turbomachinery because it effectively reduces abrasion by friction. When the oxidizer pump starts up, the floating ring moves excursively but locks up stably against the pump casing when the contact pressure increases. The compressive force on the floating ring depends on the hydrodynamic forces induced by the flow through the floating ring. This force is controlled by the nose position of the floating ring. Based on a validation test for a 7-tonf turbopump with two types of floating rings, we concluded that the floating ring with a small diameter nose can move easily with a low contact pressure in the cooling path. This leads to instability of the pressure fluctuation around the floating ring. In contrast, a floating ring with a large diameter nose has a high contact pressure and attaches strongly to the casing, which causes wear and frictional oxidation between the contact surfaces of the impeller and the floating ring.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2011

A series of water tests of a fuel pump for liquid rocket engines are performed at a room temperature. According to the test results, the head coefficient of the pump follows the conventional similarity rule - unlike this, the pump shows better efficiency with higher rotational speed. Also, it is found that the pressure at the rear bearing outlet is higher than expected because the inlet of bypass pipe line is narrow. Furthermore, the cavitation performance of the fuel pump is found to be sufficient for the engine operation and is better at the lower flow ratio and higher rotational speed.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.201-208
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• 2007

A fuel pump and turbine rotordynamic design is performed for a 75 ton thrust liquid rocket engine. A distance from the rear bearing to the turbine was considered as a design parameter for load distribution of the bearings. Asynchronous eigenvalue analysis was performed as a function of rotating speeds, turbine mass and bearing stiffness to investigate critical speed of the fuel pump and turbine. From the numerical analysis, it is found that the effect of the front bearing stiffness is negligible in the critical speed due to the large mass moment of inertia of the turbine. With the rear bearing stiffness over $2{\times}10^{8}N/m$ and the turbine mass below 20 kg, the critical speed of the fuel pump and turbine in long shaft case is at least 70 % higher than the operating speed 11,000 rpm.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2016

This work presents the numerical investigation of an unsteady cavitating flow around a balancing drum of a multistage pump. The main attention is focused on the cavitation phenomena, which occur in the rear part of the drum clearance, cause the erosion of the drum material and influence the pressure losses and the flow rate through the clearance. The one-way coupling of the URANS equations and the full Rayleigh-Plesset equation is employed to analyse the flow field as well as the dynamics of cavitating bubbles. The numerical simulations show that the erosion processes are highly influenced by shaft vibrations, namely by periodic deformations of the annular clearance in time. The calculated results are verified by erosion tests on a real pump.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2009

The effect of inlet and outlet blade angles on a micro regenerative pump head was examined in experiments. The pump head was little increased by changing the blade angles compared with the original pump with the inlet and outlet blade angles of 0 degree. The effect of the axial clearance between the impeller and the casing on the pump head was also examined. The head was increased largely by decreasing the axial clearance. The computation of the internal flow was performed to clarify the cause of the increase of the pump head due to the decrease of the clearance. The local flow rate in the casing decreased as the leakage flow rate through the axial clearance decreased due to the decrease of the clearance. It was found that the larger head in the smaller clearance was just caused by the smaller local flow rate in the casing. In the case of the smaller clearance, the smaller local flow rate caused the smaller circumferential velocity near the front and rear sides of the impeller. This caused the increase of the angular momentum in the casing and the head.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.130-141
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• 2014

As a high specific speed pump, the contra-rotating axial flow pump with two rotors rotating reversely has been proved with higher hydraulic and cavitation performance, while in our previous researches, the potential interaction between two blade rows was distinctly observed for our prototype rotors designed with equal rotational speed for both front and rear rotors. Based on the theoretical and experimental evidences, a rotational speed optimization methodology was proposed and applied in the design of a new combination of contra-rotating rotors, primarily in expectation of the optimized blade pressure distributions as well as pertinently improved hydraulic performances including cavitation performance. In the present study, given one stationary and two rotating frames in the contra-rotating rotors case, a pressure measurement concept taking account of the revolutions of both front and rear rotors simultaneously was adopted. The casing wall pressure data sampled in time domain was successfully transferred into space domain, by which the ensemble averaged blade-to-blade pressure distributions at the blade tip of two contra-rotating rotors under different operation conditions were studied. It could be seen that the rotor pair with the optimized rotational speed combination as well as work division, shows more reasonable blade-to-blade pressure distribution and well weakened potential interaction. Moreover, combining the loading curves estimated by the measured casing wall pressure, the cavitation performance of the rotor pairs with new rotational speed combination were proved to be superior to those of the prototype pairs.