Abstract:Tip leakage vortex in axial flow pump mainly caused by the rolling of the main flow and leakage flow from the tip clearance between blade tip and end wall is the main cause of the tip leakage vortex cavitation and blade tip cavitation erosion. In order to find an appropriate tip shape to control and reduce TLV cavitation, experimental results, from high speed photography cavitation test, and numerical results were compared to validate the correctness of the simulation. Then on the basis of original plane tip shape, the cavitation performance of the other three tip shapes, rounding, chamfered, and rounding chamfered, were studied by simulation. Fluid domain was calculated by structural mesh so as to get fluid characteristic in tip clearance region, precisely. The results show that the rounding tip and rounding chamfered tip make head and efficiency decline while the chamfered tip makes them raise a little. Although the rounding tip eliminates the corner vortex cavitation, it makes TLV cavitation worse. The chamfered tip is in contrast to the rounding tip, and there is cavitation existing in clearance. The rounding chamfered tip does well in controlling corner vortex cavitation and TLV cavitation simultaneously, compared with the others. The study suggests the rounding chamfered tip scheme can be adopt to control the tip cavitation, if the cavitation performance is the primary factor.