Numerical Analysis of Cavitation Instabilities Arising in the Three-Blade Cascade

Abstract

Three types of cavitation instabilities through flat plate cascades, which are similar to “forward rotating cavitation,” “rotating-stall cavitation” and “cavitation surge” occurring in high-speed rotating fluid machinery, are represented numerically under the three-blade cyclic condition. A numerical method employing a locally homogeneous model of compressible gas-liquid two-phase medium is applied to solve the above flow fields, because this permits the entire flow field inside and outside the cavity to be treated through only one system of governing equations. In addition, the numerical method suites to analyze unsteady cavitating flow with a long time evolution. From the calculated results of the present numerical simulation with wide range of cavitation number and flow rate, we obtain a cavitation performance curve of the present three-blade cyclic cascade, analyze the aspects of unsteady cavitation, and discuss the characteristics and mechanisms of cavitation.