Geometrical Optimization of an Inducer with Respect to Rotating Cavitation Generated Radial Forces by using an Orthogonal Experiment

It is known that rotating cavitation (RC) characteristic of an inducer can greatly influence the safe and stable operation of a liquid rocket. In this paper, the possibility of geometrically optimizing an inducer with respect to RC generated radial forces was discussed. The characteristics of the inducer was firstly evaluated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which was validated against experimental results. Then by employing an orthogonal experiment combined with CFD, influences of geometric parametric combinations on RC were investigated. Primary influencing factors and the best parametric combination have been obtained through a variance analysis. Comparing with the original inducer, a significant improvement in the cavitation performance, as well as the radial force characteristic of the optimized inducer has been achieved. Pressure distribution on the blades have been analyzed to reveal the related flow mechanism. This work provides a feasible and effective route in engineering practice to optimize the characteristic of RC generated radial forces for an inducer.