An Experimental Study of Influence of Slits in Throat Position on Suppression of Cavitation Instabilities in Liquid Propellant Rocket Inducer

Experiments of an inducer with symmetric slits were conducted. The purpose of the study is to explore the suppression effect on cavitation instabilities by slits. The slits are located in a throat position in each blade and it means symmetric slits. The experiments are done through measuring pressure fluctuation in the flow field and shaft displacement and visualization using high speed camera. In this study, the head performance, the suction performance, the cavity length and the occurrence range and the strength of the cavitation instabilities are compared with the results of inducer without slit. As a result, the slit in throat position does not give bad effect on head performance, improves suction performance, and has a relation to suppression of oscillation of cavitation instabilities because of the suppression effect of cavity length, although the occurrence range of super-synchronous rotating cavitation unfortunately increases because the cavity develops slowly.