Suppression of Cavitation in Inducers by J-Grooves

Cavitation is a serious problem in the development of high-speed turbopumps, and an inducer is often used to avoid cavitation in the main impeller. Thus, the inducer often operates under the worst conditions of cavitation. If it could be possible to control and suppress cavitation in the inducer by some new device, it would also be possible to suppress cavitation occurring in all types of pumps. The purpose of our present study is to develop a new, effective method of controlling and suppressing cavitation in an inducer using shallow grooves, called “J-Grooves.” J-Grooves are installed on the casing wall near the blade tip to use the high axial pressure gradient that exists between the region just downstream of the inducer leading edge and the region immediately upstream of the inducer. The results show that the proper combination of backward-swept inducer with J-Grooves improves the suction performance of the turbopump remarkably, at both partial flow rates and the design flow rate. The rotating backflow cavitation occurring at low flow rates and the cavitation surge which occurs near the best efficiency point can be almost fully suppressed by installing J-Grooves.