Analysis of cavitation performance of an aviation fuel pump based on surrogate model

In order to investigate the influence of the structure parameters (which are blade angle of inducer at exit and blade angle of impeller at inlet) of fuel pump on the cavitation performance of an aviation fuel pump, the global sensitivity analysis method that based on the surrogate method was applied, and also, the structure parameters of fuel pump had been optimized. In the numerical simulation, the local swirling correction turbulence model deriving from the standard k-ε two-equation model and Zwart cavitation model were applied. The results show that in a certain range of variation, the blade angle has a greater influence on the cavitation performance, instead of the external characteristics of fuel pump. Compared to the outlet angle of inducer, the inlet angle of impeller affects the cavitation performance more significantly. With the increase of the outlet angle of inducer, the cavitation performance firstly decreases and then increases. Based on the Pareto optimal solutions, the optimized outlet angle of inducer and inlet angle of impeller increase by 4.4° and 3.2° respectively, with the cavitation performance increasing by 18%.