Observations of Inlet Flow at Rocket Pump Inducer

Development of a high suction performance pump inducer is required for a reusable rocket engine to reduce total weight of a launch vehicle and to increase its reliability. But, flow patterns or pressure distributions in an inducer are not well known. Therefore, observations of flow patterns around an inducer by PIV (Particle Imaging Velocimetry) method were planned for the foundation data for a high suction performance inducer design. In this study, structures of the backflow and the reversed flow are minutely described and discussed.