Effect of blade tip geometry on tip leakage vortex dynamics and cavitation pattern in axial-flow pump

A series of blade tip geometries, including original plain tip, rounded tip on the pressure side and diverging tip towards the suction side, were adopted to investigate the effect of blade geometry on tip leakage vortex dynamics and cavitation pattern in an axial-flow pump. On the basis of the computation, it clearly shows the flow structure in the clearance for different tip configurations by the detailed data of axial velocity and turbulent kinetic energy. The in-plain trajectory, in aspects of the angle between the blade suction side and vortex core and the initial point of tip leakage vortex, was presented using the maximum swirling strength method. The most striking feature is that the inception location of tip leakage vortex is delayed for chamfered tip due to the change of blade loading on suction side. Some significant non-dimensional parameters, such as pressure, swirling strength and turbulent kinetic energy, were used to depict the characteristics of tip vortex core. By the distribution of circumferential vorticity which dominates the vortical flows near the tip region, it is observed that the endwall detachment as the leakage flow meets the mainstream varies considerably for tested cases. The present study also indicates that the shear layer feeds the turbulence into tip leakage vortex core, but the way is different. For the chamfered tip, high turbulence level in vortex core is mainly from the tip clearance where large turbulent kinetic energy emerges, while it is almost from a layer extending from the suction side corner for rounded tip. At last, the visualized observations show that tip clearance cavitation is eliminated dramatically for rounded tip but more intensive for chamfered tip, which can be associated with the vortex structure in the clearance.