Abstract: To analyze the effect of inlet guide vane on the cavitation performance of centrifugal pump，cavitation performance test of centrifugal pump with different flow rate is carried out. The cavitation performance curves of centrifugal pump, on the conditions of no guide vane and the guide vane angles of 12 , are obtained from experiment. Based on the full cavitation model using the homogeneous flow model supposition, considering the compressibility effect on cavitating flow to modify the RNG k- turbulence model, the Navier-Stokes equation is solved with SIMPLEC algorithm to simulate full passage cavitation flow of centrifugal pump without and with inlet guide vane under various conditions. The calculated H- curves agree well with the experiment data, and the accuracy of the method is verified. Based on the result of numerical simulation, the distribution of vapor volume fraction in impeller under various conditions is analyzed, the inlet guide vane pre-whirl regulation has little influence on cavitation performance of centrifugal pump impeller, and can improve impeller inlet flow pattern, thus resulting in more uniform pressure distribution.

Key words: Cavitation performance, Centrifugal pump, Numerical simulation