Previously it was assumed that the pressure within the cavity or on the cavity surface remained constant and the vapor pressure of clean water at 20°C and 0 m altitude was utilized as the computational boundary for cavitating flows in hydraulic turbomachinery. Cavitation was confused with vaporization, and the effect of water quality on cavitation pressure characteristics was not taken into account. In recent years, lots of experiments of cavitation pressure characteristics of different water qualities including different sand concentrations of sand water and different altitudes of clean water have been performed by the authors, and the important influences of water quality on cavitation pressure characteristic have been validated. Thus the water quality should be involved in the cavitating flows computation. In the present paper, the effect of water quality on the cavitation pressure characteristic is analyzed and the computational method and theory of cavitating flows for hydraulic turbomachinery that considers the influence of water quality are proposed. The theory is suitable for both the potential flow method and the two-phase flow method for cavitating flows simulation. Finally, the validation results for cavitating flows in a hydraulic tur- bine indicate the significant influences of water quality on the cavitating flow performance. Previously it was assumed that the pressure within the cavity or on the cavity surface remained constant and the vapor pressure of clean water at 20 ° C and 0 m altitude was utilized as the computational boundary for cavitating in hydraulic turbomachinery. Cavitation was confused with vaporization , and the effect of water quality on cavitation pressure characteristics was not taken into account. In recent years, lots of experiments of cavitation pressure characteristics of different water qualities including different sand concentrations of sand water and different altitudes of clean water have been performed by the authors, and the important influences of water quality on the cavitation pressure characteristic have been validated. Thus the water quality should be involved in the cavitating flows computation. In the present paper, the effect of water quality on the cavitation pressure characteristic is analyzed and the computational method and theory of cavitating flows for hydraulic turbomachinery that considers the influence of water quality are proposed. The theory is suitable for both the potential flow method and the two-phase flow method for cavitating flows simulation. Finally, the validation results for cavitating flows in a hydraulic tur- bine indicate the significant influences of water quality on the cavitating flow performance.