• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06e
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• pp.625-630
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• 2001

The inducers in liquid-rocket engines are to increase the inlet pressure of the pump to avoid any malfunction due to cavitation. Inducers are typically designed to be operated with some amount of cavitation for the compactness of the turbopump system. Also, inducers are designed to produce low headrise to prevent the decrease of the overall pump efficiency due to the low efficiency of inducers. In the present paper, a computational study on the hydrodynamic behavior of the inducer for the rocket-engine turbopump are presented including the effect of the mass flow rate under the constant rotational speed. As the mass flow rate is decreased, the inducer showed better performance with strong back flows which may have deleterious effects upon the anti-cavitation ability. But the adopted inducer showed very low headrise with high volume flow rates, which may be caused by the small passage area near the trailing edge. The modified version of the present inducer is proposed and numerically evaluated, which in turn showed better results.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.8 no.1 s.28
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• pp.23-29
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• 2005

Steady and unsteady cavitation characteristics of turbopump inducer were investigated in this paper. To investigate the effect of blade angle on the inducer performance, three inducers with inlet tip blade angle of $7.8^{\circ},\;7.0^{\circ},\;6.1^{\circ}$, respectively, were tested. For $7.8^{\circ},\;7.0^{\circ}$ inducers in the non-cavitating condition, head decreased linearly with flow rate, but head-flow rate curve had a dip at the flow coefficient ${\psi}=0.065$ for $6.1^{\circ}$ inducer. Attached cavitation and cavitation surge were found in the $7.8^{\circ},\;7.0^{\circ}$ inducers in the cavitation tests. During the attached cavitation one cell rotated at the same rotational speed as that of the inducer. The cavitation surge did not rotate and the oscillating frequency was $7{\sim}20\;Hz$. From the curve of the critical cavitation number versus flow rate, it was found that the steady cavitation performance of $6.1^{\circ}$ inducer was much lower than that of $7.8^{\circ},\;7.0^{\circ}$ inducers.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.12a
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• pp.333-339
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• 2003

Steady and unsteady cavitation characteristics of turbopump inducer were investigated in this paper. To see the effect of blade angle on the inducer performance, three inducers with inlet tip blade angle of $7.8^{\circ},\;7.0^{\circ},\;6.1^{\circ}$, respectively, were tested. For $7.8^{\circ},\;7.0^{\circ}$ inducers in the non-cavitating condition, head decreased linearly with flow rate, but head-flow rate curve had a dip at the flow coefficient ${\Phi}=0.065\;for\;6.1^{\circ}$ inducer. Rotating cavitation and cavitation surge were found in the $7.8^{\circ},\;7.0^{\circ}$ inducers in the cavitation tests. During the rotating cavitation one cell rotated at the same rotational speed as that of the inducer. The cavitation surge did not rotate and the oscillating frequency was $7{\sim}20\;Hz$. From the curve of the critical cavitation number versus flow rate, it was found that the steady cavitation performance of $6.1^{\circ}$ inducer was much lower than that of $7.8^{\circ},\;7.0^{\circ}$ inducers.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.650-654
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• 2005

Computational and experimental studies on the forward-sweep inducer for the rocket-engine turbopump are presented in comparison with the conventional backward-sweep inducer. It is shown that back flows at the inlet decreases for forward-sweep inducers. And the low pressure region at the back flow are also decreased, which is assumed to promote the suction performance of the inducers. The backward-sweep inducer shows almost the same suction performance as that of the backward-sweep inducers although it has small inlet tip diameter and shorter length. And the efficiency of the forward-type inducer shows better results than the backward-sweep inducer due to the small size of backflows.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.74-79
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• 2005

Computational studies on the hydrodynamic behavior of the forward-sweep inducers for the rocket-engine turbopump are presented in comparison with the conventional backward- sweep inducers. In the present study, two kinds of forward-sweep inducers are designed and numerically investigated. Forward-sweep inducers have bigger tip solidity compared to backward-sweep inducers even with shorter axial length due to their forward-sweep leading edge profiles. It is shown that back flows at the inlet decreases dramatically for forward- sweep inducers. And the low pressure region at the back flow are also decreased, which is assumed to promote the suction performance of the inducers. It seems that the hub located upstream of the tip at the leading edge induces pre whirl at the inlet blade tip for the backward sweep inducer. And this pre whirl leads to the big back flow.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.2 s.35
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• pp.25-29
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• 2006

Computational and experimental studies on the forward-sweep inducer for the rocket-engine turbopump are presented in comparison with the conventional backward-sweep inducer. Computational results show that back flows at the inlet decrease in the case of forward-sweep inducers compared to the back-ward inducer. Moreover, the low pressure region at the back flow is decreased, which is presumed to improve the suction performance of the inducers. Experimental results show that the suction performance of the forward-sweep inducer is almost the same as that of the backward-sweep inducer although it has smaller inlet tip diameter and shorter length. The efficiency of the forward-type inducer is found better than that of the backward-sweep inducer due to the small size of back flows.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.264-267
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• 2010

This research focuses on the development of numerical code to deal with compressible two phase flow around three dimensional objects combined with cavitation model suggested by Weishyy et al. with k-e turbulent model. The cryogenic cavitation is carried out by considering the thermodynamic effect on physical properties of cryogenic fluids in physical point of view and implementing the temperature sensitivity in the energy equation of the government equations in numerical point of view, respectively. The formulation has been extensively validated for both liquid nitrogen and liquid hydrogen by simulating the experiments of Hord on hydrofoils. Then, simulations of cavitating turbopump inducers at their design flow rate are presented. Results over a broad range of Nss numbers extending from single-phase flow conditions through the critical head break down point are discussed. In particular, thermal depression effects arising from cavitation in cryogenic fluids are identified and their impact on the suction performance of the inducer quantified.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.52-57
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• 2009

The effects of number of blades on the hydraulic performance of the inducer were studied using a computational method. Inducers with number of blades from 2 to 4 were used for computations and the hydraulic performances of the inducers were compared. The computational results showed that the hydraulic performance decreased due to the increase of the skin friction loss at blade passages as the blade number increased. The results also showed that the strength of the backflow became weak because of the decrease of unfavorable pressure gradient as the blade number increased.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.5 no.1 s.14
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• pp.27-32
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• 2002

The turbopump inducer cavitation is very important for the success of a liquid rocket engine. In this study, the performance test and cavitation performance test were carried out at various rotational speeds with two inducers of different diameter. The rotational speed was varied by 4000, 6000, and 8000 rpm, and the size effect was tested for the normal inducer and twice-enlarged one. The hydraulic performance results showed that the similarity was satisfied over the entire test range of the present study. The blade thickness effect was examined and showed that the increased blade thickness resulted in decreased efficiency and worse cavitation performance for the large tip clearance. The cavitation performance test results showed that the breakdown NPSH increased as the flow coefficient, and was not affected by the rotational speed.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.229-234
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• 2001

The turbopump inducer cavitation is very important for the success of a Liquid rocket engine. In this study the performance test and cavitation performance test were carried out at various rotational speed with two different diameter inducers. The rotational speed were varied 4000, 6000, 8000 rpm and the variation to the diameter of an inducer were taken as design size and 2 times enlarged size. The major results of the present study were as follows. 1. The hydraulic performance results showed that the similarity was met over the entire test range of the present study. 2. The blade thickness effect was examined and showed that the increased blade thickness resulted in decreased efficiency and worse cavitation performance for large tip clearance. 3. The cavitation performance test results showed that the breakdown NPSH increases as the flow coefficient and does not affected by the rotational speed.