A body force model for cavitating inducers in rocket engine turbopumps

Abstract

Modern rocket engine turbopumps utilize cavitating inducers to meet mass and volume requirements. Rotating cavitation and higher order cavitation instabilities have frequently been observed during inducer testing and operation and can cause severe asymmetric loading on the inducer blades and shaft, potentially leading to failure of the inducer. To date no broadly applicable design method exists to characterize and suppress the onset of cavitation instabilities. This thesis presents the development of a body force model for cavitating inducers with the goal of enabling interrogation of the onset of rotating cavitation and higher order cavitation instabilities and characterization of the governing uid dynamic mechanisms. Building on body force models of gas turbine compressors for compressor stability, the model introduces an additional force component, the binormal force, to capture the strong radial flows observed in inducer ow fields. The body forces were defined and the methodology was successfully validated for two test inducers, a helical inducer and a more advanced design resembling the Space Shuttle Main Engine Low Pressure Oxidizer Pump. The head rise characteristic of each test inducer was captured with less than 4% error across the operating range and the extent of the upstream backflow region was predicted to within 18% at every operating condition. Several challenges with the blade passage model were encountered during the course of the research and the diagnostics performed to investigate them are detailed. An extension of the body force model to two-phase flows was formulated and preliminary calculations with the extended model are presented. The preliminary two-phase results are encouraging and pave the way for future assessment of rotating cavitation instabilities.