Analysis of cavitation behavior in a residual heat removal pump

The hydraulic performances as well as the cavitation phenomena in a scaled residual heat removal pump were investigated by experimental and numerical methods, respectively. In particular, a three-dimensional numerical model of cavitation with the standard k-ε turbulence model was adopted to simulate the internal cavitating flow through the model pump, and a high quality polyhedral grid was generated to reduce the number of cells and better align the cell faces and flow. The hydraulic performances of the model pump predicted by numerical simulations were in good agreement with the corresponding experimental data under non-cavitation and cavitation conditions. Complicated internal flow phenomena through impellers such as formation of cavities, blade-loading under different cavitation conditions and static pressure on mid-span of impeller were investigated and discussed. Results show that low pressure generation under cavitating conditions is the main reason of cavities forming. Blade-loading distributions on pressure surface of blades show a sudden jitter near the blade leading edge. Numerical and experimental results in this paper can provide better understanding of the origin of leading edge cavitation in residual heat removal pumps.