Developing a numerical framework to study the cavitation and non-cavitation behaviour of a centrifugal pump inducer

The present work explores the impact of tip clearance on the mean blade height ratio, inlet tip blade angle, and surface roughness of the inducer. The objective is to find an optimized inducer to limit the secondary flow over the blades, which in turn improves the pump efficiency and reduces the life cycle costs. A numerical framework is developed to investigate efficient operational and geometrical parameters on an inducer's cavitation and non-cavitation presentations. The catalyser functioning is simulated by applying a 3D CFD model, and the results are assessed against empirical data. The results show a reliable agreement with empirical data and suggest that the increment of tip clearance in the mean blade height ratio causes the hydraulic performance and the analytical cavitation number to decline in cavitation and non-cavitation conditions. Moreover, the optimum value of 85o is found for the inlet tip blade angle, which improves the non-cavitation performance.