Abstract: In consideration of improving cavitation capacity of centrifugal pump to inhibit pressure pulsations, vibrations and dynamic loads in flow passing areas, alleviating damages of reusable liquid rocket engine turbo-pumps caused by cavitation erosion and satisfying the requirements of high rotation speed, low inlet pressure, small sizes and light weight, three dimensional simulations of unsteady pressure pulsation and cavitation capacity are carried out to a single screw inducer and an inducer with axial-vortex stage utilizing CFD methods. The results show that compared with single screw inducer, inducer with axial-vortex stage has 25% higher cavitation coefficient, 30% higher initial cavitation coefficient and lower pressure pulsation of blade passing frequency in the outlet of inducer, which all prove that cavitation capacity is obviously ameliorated.

Key words: Screw inducer;Axial-vortex stage;Screw-centrifugal pump;Cavitation capacity;Pressure pulsations