Experiment of cavitating flow characteristics of inducer with inflow entrained air

To study the effect of inflow entrained non-condensable LOX tank pressurization gas on cavitating flow inside inducer pumps, a series of experiment were performed. The cavitation head breakdown point and cavitation instability characteristics of an inducer pump under different inlet gas volume fraction(IGVF) were investigated. It was found that head breakdown occurred at higher cavitation number under higher IGVF condition. Analysis of low frequency pulsating pressure suggested that cavitation surge was supressed by extra compressibility provided by non-condensable gas at operating point near head breakdown.