Effects of Alternate Leading Edge Cutback on Unsteady Cavitation in 4-Bladed Inducers

Abstract

A set of 4-bladed inducers with various amounts of cutback was tested with the aim of suppressing the rotating cavitation by applying alternate leading edge cutback. Unsteady cavitation patterns were observed by means of inlet pressure measurements and high-speed video pictures. It was found that the region with the alternate blade cavitation and asymmetric cavitation were enlarged with the increase of the amount of the cutback. As a result, the region with the rotating cavitation was diminished. At low flow rate, two types of alternate blade cavitation were found as predicted theoretically on 4-bladed inducer with smaller uneven blade length. One of them is with longer cavities on longer blades, and the other is with longer cavities on shorter blades. Switch was observed in these alternate blade cavitation patterns depending whether the cavitation number was increased or decreased. For an inducer with larger amount of cutback, the rotating cavitation and cavitation surge were almost suppressed as expected for a wide range of flow rate and cavitation number, although the cavitation performance was deteriorated. However, we should note that an asymmetric cavitation pattern occurs more easily in inducers with alternate leading edge cutback, and that the unevenness due to the cutback causes uneven blade stress.