摘要：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 3D numerical model of cavitation was adopted to simulate the internal cavitating flow through the model pump. The hydraulic performances of the model pump predicted by numerical simulations were in good agreement with the corresponding experimental data. The main generation and evolution of attached cavitation throughout the blade channels at different cavitating conditions have been investigated using the vapor fraction ISO surface and in-plane velocity vectors. Results show that the low static pressure at the impeller inlet is the main reason for leading edge cavitation by correlation analysis of static pressure on the midspan of impeller. Cavitation proved to occur over a wide range of flow rates, producing a characteristic creeping shape of the head-drop curve and developing in the form of nonaxisymmetric cavities at design flow rate. Moreover, the occurrence of these cavities, attached to the suction surface of blades, was found to depend on the NPSHA value. Numerical and experimental results in this paper can provide better understanding of the origin of leading edge cavitation in residual heat removal pumps.
