A computational study of the air flow in a helical rocket pump inducer has been
performed using a 3-D elliptic flow procedure including viscous effects. The inlet flow is
considered turbulent and fully developed.
The geometric, definition of the inducer blade shape and the calculation grid are first
presented, followed by a discussion of the flow calculation results displayed in various
new graphical representations.
The general characteristics expected from previous experimental and analytical work
appear in the simulation and were quantitatively studied. The tip leakage flow observed
has velocities of the order of the blade tip speed and is partially convected across the
entire passage. The important boundary layer development on the blade pressure side
and suction side creates radial outward flows, whereas a radial inward motion develops
in the core region, with velocities of same order, and from shroud to hub. Secondary
and tip leakage flows combine to give a region of high flow losses and blockage near the
shroud wall, and the secondary flow pattern is nearly fully developed by the inducer exit.
Original details were also resolved in the flow calculation. A circumferential vortex
develops near the shroud, immediately upstream of the suction side of the swept-back
leading edge. A simplified air-LH2 analogy permitted the prediction of cavitation inception
in the liquid hydrogen pump, and the results obtained correspond qualitatively well
with water flow visualizations.
The accordance of the model with available air test data at the inlet and exit of the
inducer is generally very good, with the total pressure losses in excellent agreement.
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