Acoustic detection of cavitation in a prototype centrifugal pump

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5131723

Cha, Y S

This paper describes the results of acoustic detection, using a submerged hydrophone, of cavitation in a prototype centrifugal pump. The experimental results show that the high-frequency (>10 kHz) noise provides a better means of detecting light and moderate pump cavitation conditions as compared with low-frequency cavitation noise that was not easily distinguished from the background noise. Another important observation was that cavitation noise started to increase sharply when the NPSH value was reduced to some critical value which seemed to coincide with the point where the head started to decrease for all the tests. Noise at higher frequency bands exhibited quite different behavior from that at low frequencies. For a high NPSH value, the high-frequency noise amplitude increased slightly as the NPSH value was decreased while the head remained constant. The high-frequency noise started to increase sharply as soon as the head began to decrease until somewhere near the 3% headdrop point. The noise level then decreased and increased again over a very narrow band of NPSH value. This phenomenon was observed in some other pump tests reported in the literature. A qualitatitve interpretation was provided to explain this behavior.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 5131723
• Report Number(s): CONF-8504180-1; ON: DE85018447
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
ACOUSTIC DETECTION
ACOUSTIC MEASUREMENTS
ACOUSTICS
CAVITATION
CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
DETECTION
FLOW RATE
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PUMPS
RADIATION DETECTION