Numerical and experimental investigation of tip leakage vortex cavitation patterns and mechanisms in an axial flow pump

The tip leakage vortex (TLV) cavitating flow in an axial flow pump was simulated based on an improved shear stress transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model and the homogeneous cavitation model. The generation and dynamics of the TLV cavitation throughout the blade cascades at different cavitation numbers were investigated by the numerical and experimental visualizations. The investigation results show that the corner vortex cavitation in the tip clearance is correlated with the reversed flow at the pressure side (PS) corner of blade, and TLV shear layer cavitation is caused by the interaction between the wall jet flow in the tip and the main flow in the impeller. The TLV cavitation patterns including TLV cavitation, tip corner vortex cavitation, shear layer cavitation, and blowing cavitation are merged into the unstable large-scale TLV cloud cavitation at critical cavitation conditions, which grows and collapses periodically near trailing edge (TE).