Predicting the Inception Cavitation of a Reversible Pump- Turbine in Pump Mode

Abstract

Inception cavitation is a crucial indicator for reversible pump-turbines especially in pump mode. In actual applications, it is difficult to use CFD for the inception cavitation character. In this study, CFD simulation is conducted to find a proper way to evaluate the inception cavitation, different levels of vapor volume fraction in the impeller is predicted based on the tested results. Results show that the prediction of the location and scale of cavitation is accurate. The predicted cavitation number also matches the experimental data well. The vapor volume fraction levels from 0.0001% to 0.001% are recommended as the criterion of inception cavitation.