Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published May 13, 1986 | public
Book Section - Chapter Open

Impeller Fluid Forces

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of the steady and unsteady forces which may be imparted to a pump impeller by the through flow. The historical trend to increase the power density and speed of turbomachines has inevitably led to an increase in the number of fluid/structure interaction problems because the fluid forces scale like the square of the speed and thus become increasingly important relative to the structural strength. The present paper focuses on the radial forces acting on the impeller of a pump. Under the sponsorship of NASA, the authors have, over the past few years, conducted an extensive investigation of these forces and the associated hydrodynamically induced rotordynamic coefficients. A new facility, called the Rotor Force Test Facility was designed and constructed for the experimental component of this program. Measurements of the forces and rotordynamic coefficients have been made for a range of different impeller and volutes and include tests with the impeller of the high pressure oxygen turbopump (HPOTP) in the Space Shuttle Main Engine. Furthermore, tests have been conducted with different leakage flow geometries and, with different levels of pump cavitation. The paper will summarize these experimental measurements and the results of some theoretical analyses.

Additional Information

The authors are indebted to the NASA George Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama for continued sponsorship of this research under contract NAS8-33108. Several former graduate students at Caltech including D. S. Chamieh, B. Jery, and D. R. Adkins made major contributions to this work; we are grateful to them as we are to current graduate students R. Franz and N. Arndt. We also acknowledge the help given by undergraduates, W. Goda of Caltech and D. Brennen of UCSD.

Files

BRE075.pdf
Files (1.2 MB)
Name Size Download all
md5:dc3d14e9552491af043d34ba61f43545
1.2 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 21, 2023
Modified:
January 11, 2024