Experimental investigation of cavitation erosion caused by adding a swept shape to the leading edge of fan-type inducer blades

Turbopumps are essential machines for transporting liquids by giving energy to them at various locations. The pumps are used in a wide range of flow rate however, cavitation occurs under some conditions. Cavitation is one of the biggest problems in industrial turbopumps because it causes serious vibration, noise and damaging. Therefore, there is a demand for pump manufacturers to prevent problems due to the cavitation before delivering products to the site. In this study, some experiments were conducted to establish a practical technique for predicting the occurrence, form, and erosion risk of cavitation. A centrifuge pump with fan-type inducer was operated to measure noise to outside of pipes at various cavitation numbers and flow rates. In addition, the paint erosion test was also conducted to estimate the cavitation erosion risk at the blades of inducer. From these experiments results, the author investigate the relationship between cavitation noise and erosion risk.