Linear Stability Analysis of the Effects of Camber and Blade Thickness on Cavitation Instabilities in Inducers

It has been shown by experimental and numerical studies that various cavitation instabilities occur in inducers for rocket engines when the cavity length exceeds about 65% of the blade spacing. On the other hand, it has been pointed out by an experimental study that the cavitation instabilities occur when the pressure gradient near the throat becomes small to some degree. The present study is motivated to examine the latter criterion based on pressure gradient for cavitation instabilities from the viewpoint of theoretical analysis. For this purpose, analyses of steady flow and its stability were carried out for cavitating flow in cascades with circular arc and plano-convex blades by a singularity method based on closed cavity model. It was found that the criterion based on the cavity length for the occurrence of cavitation instabilities is more adequate than the criterion based on the pressure gradient. It was also found that the steady cavity length and the stability of the flow in both cascades can be practically correlated with a parameter $σ∕[2(α−α0)]$⁠, where $σ$ is a cavitation number, $α$ is an angle of attack, and $α0$ is a shockless angle of attack.