Study on cavitation influence for pump head in an axial flow pump

The size of axial flow pumps used in drainage pump stations has recently decreased, and their rotation speeds have increased, causing an increase in the risk of cavitation. Therefore, to provide highly reliable pumps, it is important to understand the internal flow of pumps under cavitating conditions. In this study, high-speed camera measurements and computational fluid dynamics analysis were performed to understand the cavitation performance of an axial flow pump. The mechanism that causes the head to change as a result of cavitation under low net positive suction head values is shown to be the balance between the increasing angular momentum and the loss indicated by the changing streamlines.