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Published April 22, 2014 | Published
Report Open

Dynamic Response of Cavitating Turbomachines

Ng, Sheung-Lip

Abstract

Stimulated by the pogo instability encountered in many liquid propellant rockets, the dynamic behavior of cavitating inducers is the subject of the present thesis. An experimental facility where the upstream and downstream flows of a cavitating inducer could be perturbed was constructed and tested. The upstream and downstream pressure and mass flow fluctuations were measured. Matrices representing the transfer functions across the inducer pump were calculated from these measurements and from the hydraulic system characteristics for two impellers in various states of cavitation. The transfer matrices when plotted against the perturbing frequency showed significant departure from steady state or quasi-steady predictions especially at higher frequencies.

Additional Information

Contract NAS 8-29313. Report No. E 183.1. The present work is a report of research on the dynamics of cavitating pumps carried out mainly with the support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under contracts NAS 8-29313 and NAS 8-28046 from the George Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, administered by Mr. Loren Gross. In addition there was support from the Office of Naval Research under contract N00014-76-C-0156, and additional grants from the Ford Foundation and Transwestern Pipe. All this support is gratefully acknowledged. The present report is based on a PhD Thesis (California Institute of Technology 1976) having the same title. Many individuals contributed their help and advice. I would like to acknowledge them here. Firstly, I would like to express my most sincere thanks to my advisor, Dr . A. J. Acosta, for giving me the opportunity to work on this project and for his constant guidance, encouragement and patience. I also wish to thank Dr. C. Brennen for his close and indispensable assistance in the research. To Dr. R. Saber sky goes my deepest appreciation for his concern during my stay here. For their technical consultations on the design of the facility, the help of Professor D. Welch, Dr. H. Shapiro and Mr. R. Rigley are acknowledged. I am grateful to Messrs. N. Keidel, E. Daly, V. Sodha and D . Laird for their technical assistance in the construction and assembly of the system. Thanks go to Messrs. E . Adler, D. Braisted, C. Constantin, D. Carlson, J. DelValle, P. Mason and R. Higley for their valuable help in various phases of the experiment. Special thanks are due Ms. B. Hawk, J. Sarkissian and M. Suggs in preparing this manuscript. Finally, heartfelt thanks go to my parents for their extreme patience and understanding.

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August 19, 2023
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October 26, 2023