NSF Award
9861213
9861213<br/> This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop design tools for high- performance cavitating pump inducers and impellers. An innovative inducer design approach will be taken using bowed blading, sweep, and incidence, plus cover treatment concepts. In laboratory tests Phase I will explore tradeoffs between blade shape, loading, and cavitation. Blade design parameters such as solidity, leading edge shape (sweep), cant angle, tip speed, and clearance and thickness effects will be investigated in the laboratory by means of steady and dynamic measurements and flow visualization techniques. Design tools, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD), will be evaluated for modeling both non-cavitating and cavitating performance to understand this design problem further. Since pumps must currently be operated at low speed due to cavitation design limitations, they are limited in efficiency and reliable operation over a wide flow range. These new design tools are expected to model cavitation performance effectively and thereby to advance rocket propulsion technologies and overcome current industrial pump limits.<br/> Commercial applications are expected in aerospace and industrial pump companies. The anticipated technology and design tools will be introduced to industrial and rocket engine turbopump manufacturers via a a design software system. Since energy consumed by industrial pumps is about one-quarter of that used by vehicles, the expected improvements in pump efficiency may also tranlate into significant energy conservation.
