The cavitation characteristics and load distributions of the inducer have great influences on the vibration characteristics of the rotating system and the whole pump. In this paper, the numerical simulations of the flow field within different inducers were carried out based on the Shear Stress Transfer (SST) k–ω turbulence model combined with the hybrid cavitation model to investigate the effects of blade numbers on the internal flow and cavitation characteristics of the model inducers. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results obtained using a closed inducer performance test rig to verify the accuracy and applicability of the numerical simulation method. The comparisons show that the three-blade inducer has better cavitation performances than the two-blade one. The simulation results of the bubble and load distributions suggest that the cavitation at low flow rates within the two model inducers occurs mainly near the leading edge of the blade tip, but at the design flow rates or higher flow rates, the cavitation within the two-blade inducer occurs along the suction surfaces near the inlet and the cavitation within the three-blade inducer occurs mainly on the inlet suction surfaces near the blade root.
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