An advanced transient CFD model of a positive displacement reciprocating pump was created to study its behavior and performance in cavitating condition during the inlet stroke. The “full” cavitation model developed by Singhal et al. was utilized, and a sensitivity analysis test on two air mass fraction amounts (1.5 and 15 parts per million) was carried out to study the influence of the dissolved air content in water on the cavitation phenomenon. The model was equipped with user defined functions to introduce the liquid compressibility, which stabilizes the simulation, and to handle the two-way coupling between the pressure field and the inlet valve lift history. Estimation of the performance is also presented in both cases.
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