Analysis of Cavitation Performance of Inducers

Low specific speed centrifugal pumps have low flow rates and high heads. They are widely applied in the petroleum, chemical, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, metallurgy, and light industries, among others. With the development of space technology and petrol chemical industry, the highly stable cavitation performance of centrifugal pumps has been put forward. Poor cavitation performance is one of the key problems in low specific speed centrifugal pumps. The most effective method for solving this problem is adding an inducer upstream of the impeller to identify the influence produced by different pre-positioned structures. This chapter focuses primarily on the analysis of the cavitation performance of inducers to identify the influence imposed by different inducers on the cavitation performance of a centrifugal pump. The chapter is organized into five sections. First, the status of research on cavitation performance is reviewed. Second, the research model is described. Third, the simulations of the different inducers are presented. Fourth, the cavitation performance experiment is carried out. The conclusion ends the chapter.