The article recalls the recent development of a reduced order model for the preliminary design, geometric definition and noncavitating performance prediction of tapered-hub, variable-pitch, mixed-flow inducers, and illustrates its application to a typical three-bladed, high-head inducer for liquid propellant rocket engines. The mean axisymmetric flow field at the trailing edge of the inducer blades and the noncavitating head coefficient at both design and off-design conditions are then compared with those obtained from the numerical flow simulations generated by a commercial CFD code. Together with earlier experimental validations, the results dramatically confirm the capability of the proposed model to generate interpretative and useful engineering solutions of the inducer preliminary design problem at a negligible fraction of the computational cost required by 3D numerical simulations.
A Reduced Order Model for Preliminary Design and Performance Prediction of Tapered Inducers: Comparison with Numerical Simulations
D'AGOSTINO, LUCA;PASINI, ANGELO;
2008-01-01
Abstract
The article recalls the recent development of a reduced order model for the preliminary design, geometric definition and noncavitating performance prediction of tapered-hub, variable-pitch, mixed-flow inducers, and illustrates its application to a typical three-bladed, high-head inducer for liquid propellant rocket engines. The mean axisymmetric flow field at the trailing edge of the inducer blades and the noncavitating head coefficient at both design and off-design conditions are then compared with those obtained from the numerical flow simulations generated by a commercial CFD code. Together with earlier experimental validations, the results dramatically confirm the capability of the proposed model to generate interpretative and useful engineering solutions of the inducer preliminary design problem at a negligible fraction of the computational cost required by 3D numerical simulations.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.