A Theoretical Analysis of Alternate Blade Cavitation in Inducers

Abstract

An analysis of alternate blade cavitation on flat plate cascade is made using a singularity method based on a closed cavity model. In the steady flow analysis, it was found that two kinds of steady cavitation patterns exist. One is equal length cavitation in which the cavity lengths of all blades are the same. The other is alternate blade cavitation in which the cavity length changes alternately from blade to blade. Although the present model fails to predict the range of cavitation number where alternate blade cavitation occurs, it predicts alternate blade cavitation fairly well in terms of cavity length. A parameter study shows that the development of alternate blade cavitation is quite different depending on the solidity of cascade. The stability of equal length and alternate blade cavitation is then examined allowing the cavity length freely to change. It was found that alternate blade cavitation is stable for the cascades with larger solidity and unstable for the cascades with smaller solidity. The equal length cavitation is stable in both cases only in the region of cavitation number larger than that where the alternate blade cavitation solution separates from the equal length cavitation. [S0098-2202(00)01301-8]