Research on an acoustic judgment method for the incipient cavitation of model hydraulic machinery runner blades

The cavitation phenomenon is an important factor affecting the safe and stable operation of hydraulic machinery units. The cavitation of the hydraulic machinery units can lead to the increased vibration, reduced efficiency, and cavitation erosion of blades. Therefore, a method is needed to determine the incipient cavitation of hydraulic machinery runner blades. This study is initiated from the acoustic characteristics of bubbles generated by the cavitation of model hydraulic turbines and the characteristics of radiated sound energy during cavitation. The characteristics of cavitation noise are studied. After the qualitative analysis of the high- and low-frequency energy distribution patterns of cavitation noise signals before and after cavitation, a mathematical model of the time-frequency characteristics of these signals is proposed using the energy distribution analysis method. The feature information is extracted from the cavitation noise signals and used to judge the occurrence of incipient cavitation in model turbine runner blades. Based on this method, an online cavitation monitoring system is constructed, and comparative tests are carried out on a model pump turbine and Francis turbine. It is found that the results of the proposed method for the judgment of incipient cavitation are highly consistent with those of traditional methods.