Dynamic Response of Blade Surface Cavitation

Abstract

In high speed turbopumps, cavitation occurs and often causes the flow instabilities such as cavitation surge and rotating cavitation. The occurrence of these cavitation instabilities is considered to relate to dynamic characteristics of the cavitation, which are modelled using a cavitation compliance and a mass flow gain factor. Various types of cavitation such as a blade surface cavitation, a tip leakage vortex cavitation, and a backflow vortex cavitation occur at the same time in the inducer and the dynamic characteristics of each cavitation have not been clarified yet in experiments. Focusing on the blade surface cavitation as one of fundamental cavitation, we investigated the dynamic characteristics of the blade surface cavitation on a flat plate hydrofoil in experiments in the present study.