Experimental Characterization of the Cavitation Instabilities in the Avio “FAST2” Inducer

Abstract

The present paper illustrates the main results of an experimental campaign conducted using the CPRTF (Cavitating Pump Rotordynamic Test Facility) at Alta S.p.A. The tests were carried out on the FAST2 inducer, a two-bladed axial pump designed and manufactured by Avio S.p.A. using the criteria followed for VINCI180 inducer. The transparent inlet section of the facility was instrumented by several piezoelectric pressure transducers located at three axial stations: inducer inlet, outlet and at the middle of the axial chord of the blades. For each axial station at least two transducers were mounted at a given angular spacing, in order to cross-correlate their signals for coherence and phase analysis. The most interesting detected instabilities were: a cavitation auto-oscillation at about 5÷12 Hz, a high order cavitation surge having a frequency of about 4.4W and a rotating stall at about 0.31W. Some experiments were carried out under forced vibration cond..

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