Experimental investigation of blade-to-blade pressure distribution in contra-rotating axial flow pump

As a high specific speed pump, the contra-rotating axial flow pump with two rotors rotating reversely has been proved with higher hydraulic and cavitation performance, while in our previous researches, the potential interaction between two blade rows was distinctly observed for our prototype rotors designed with equal rotational speed for both front and rear rotors. Based on the theoretical and experimental evidences, a rotational speed optimization methodology was proposed and applied in the design of a new combination of contra-rotating rotors, primarily in expectation of the optimized blade pressure distributions as well as pertinently improved hydraulic performances including cavitation performance. In the present study, given one stationary and two rotating frames in the contra-rotating rotors case, a pressure measurement concept taking account of the revolutions of both front and rear rotors simultaneously was adopted. The casing wall pressure data sampled in time domain was successfully transferred into space domain, by which the ensemble averaged blade-to-blade pressure distributions at the blade tip of two contra-rotating rotors under different operation conditions were studied. It could be seen that the rotor pair with the optimized rotational speed combination as well as work division, shows more reasonable blade-to-blade pressure distribution and well weakened potential interaction. Moreover, combining the loading curves estimated by the measured casing wall pressure, the cavitation performance of the rotor pairs with new rotational speed combination were proved to be superior to those of the prototype pairs.