Scribd
Upload
78 views4 pages

An Overview of Cavitation

Cavitation occurs when local pressure in a liquid drops below its vapor pressure, causing vapor bubbles to form. These bubbles can collapse violently as pressure increases, generating high pressures and damaging surfaces through erosion. Cavitation is influenced by factors like pressure, temperature, fluid velocity, and the presence of gas nuclei. It commonly occurs in turbulent flows where eddies cause local pressure drops, such as near pump impellers or ship propellers. Cavitation bubbles undergo rapid growth and collapse over milliseconds, with spherical collapse generating shockwaves and distortions sometimes forming damaging microjets. The cavitation number characterizes flow conditions influencing cavitation onset.

Uploaded by

vela van
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
78 views4 pages

An Overview of Cavitation

Cavitation occurs when local pressure in a liquid drops below its vapor pressure, causing vapor bubbles to form. These bubbles can collapse violently as pressure increases, generating high pressures and damaging surfaces through erosion. Cavitation is influenced by factors like pressure, temperature, fluid velocity, and the presence of gas nuclei. It commonly occurs in turbulent flows where eddies cause local pressure drops, such as near pump impellers or ship propellers. Cavitation bubbles undergo rapid growth and collapse over milliseconds, with spherical collapse generating shockwaves and distortions sometimes forming damaging microjets. The cavitation number characterizes flow conditions influencing cavitation onset.

Uploaded by

vela van
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

An Overview of Cavitation

Fundamentals
Effect of Operating Pressure and Cavitation Number
Cavitation number can predict cavitation intensity. The operating inlet pressures to the cavitating
device and cavitation number are the two important parameters that affect the cavitational intensity
generated. The number of cavities being generated and the pressure/temperature pulse generated
due to cavity collapse depend very much on the inlet pressure and the cavitation number. The
Cavitation Number is useful when analyzing fluid flow dynamics problems where cavitation may occur.
The parameters which describe the conditions for cavitation similarity are bundled into an equation
called the cavitation number, = [ Pa – Pc] / [½ ρ U^2] where Pa is ambient absolute pressure, Pc is the
cavity pressure, ρ is the mass density of the liquid and U is reference speed characteristic of the flow.
The most likely place for cavitation to occur
Because cavitation number decreases with increasing velocity, cavitation is most likely to occur near
the blade tips, where the rotational component of velocity is greatest. It can also happen near the
roots, where the blade meets the hub, because the angle of incidence is higher there. The cavitation
number at which cavitation begins is called the critical cavitation number.
General rules to avoid cavitation
-avoid low pressure - pressurize supply tanks if necessary
-reduce fluid temperature
-use larger suction pipe diameters - reduce minor losses
-use cavitation resistant materials or coatings
-small amounts of air supplied to the suction system may reduce the amount of cavitation damage
-keep available NPSH well above required NPSH.
General
Cavitation is defined as the formation of a liquid's vapor phase when it is subjected to reduced pressure
at constant ambient temperature. A volume of liquid may rupture and form a cavity when subjected to
sufficiently low pressure. This is referred to as cavitation. As a result, it is the process of boiling a liquid
due to pressure reduction rather than heat addition. The basic principle and thermodynamic processes,
however, are the same in both cases. It is the process of converting liquid potential energy into kinetic
energy without any external intervention. When the phase transition results from hydrodynamic
pressure changes, a two-phase flow composed of a liquid and its vapor called Cavitating flow is created.
When the phase transition occurs as a result of hydrodynamic pressure changes, a two-phase flow
composed of a liquid and its vapour is formed, known as cavitating flow.
Cavitation will only occur if the local pressure declines to some point below the saturated vapor pressure
of the liquid and subsequent recovery above the vapor pressure. If the recovery pressure is not above
the vapor pressure, then flashing is said to have occurred.

A typical example of cavitation


Turbulent shear flow – Pressure drop by eddies
Cavitation can occur in turbulent shear flows because of local pressure reduction by eddies. An eddy is
the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid is in a turbulent flow system. The
moving fluid creates a space absence of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object.
Fluid behind the obstacle flows into the void creating a swirl of fluid on each edge of the obstacle,
followed by a short reverse flow, see the image below, of fluid behind the obstacle flowing upstream,
toward the back of the obstacle. When there is backflow, there is huge friction and a huge pressure
drop.
A typical cavitation example:
Pressure drops caused by eddies in turbulent shear flow
Cavitation can occur in turbulent shear flows due to eddy pressure reduction. An eddy is the swirling and
reverse current created by a fluid in a turbulent flow system. The moving fluid creates a space absence of
downstream-flowing fluid on the object's downstream side.

Dynamics of transient cavitation bubbles


The life of the small transient bubbles is measured in milliseconds. They grow during their passage
through the low-pressure region and then collapse as they enter the region of increasing pressure. If the
bubbles have a relatively high initial gas content, they will collapse and rebound. If such bubbles remain
spherical throughout their life history, extremely high pressures would be generated upon the collapse
of the order of thousands of atmospheres. Spherically collapsing cavitation bubbles produce a shock
wave followed by a rebound bubble.
However, distortions occur because of Taylor's instability. Taylor instability: It is the instability of an
interface between two fluids of different densities which occurs when the lighter fluid is pushing the
heavier fluid. Therefore, some distortions occur and some bubbles collapse. When bubbles collapse an
internal jet is formed. The velocity of the jet is very high; the impact on a surface produces high stress
and causes severe damage to surface particularly by erosion.
Erosion by cavitation: An important aspect of cavitation bubbles is their erosive power, which can be
both harmful or beneficial, depending on the application. The erosion takes place during and shortly
after the collapse of single bubbles, and is, in most cases, attributed to the formation of a strong shock
or a fast, thin liquid jet, called the micro-jet, please the image below.

Cavitation scaling laws


The parameters which describe the conditions for cavitation similarity are bundled into an equation
called the cavitation number, = [ Pa – Pc] / [½ ρ U^2] where Pa is ambient absolute pressure, Pc is the
cavity pressure, ρ is the mass density of the liquid and U is reference speed characteristic of the flow. The
cavitation number at which cavitation begins is called the critical cavitation number. Above the critical
cavitation number, no cavitation occurs; below the critical, it does occur. Operation with well below
critical number produces a very large cavitated region. In a two-phase one component flow, the cavity
pressure is just the vapor pressure. In a multicomponent flow, the cavity pressure is the sum of the
partial pressures of the vapor of the liquid and of any gas that may have been introduced into the cavity.
Beginning of cavitation: The role of Nuclei
The beginning of cavitation in a multi-component liquid at pressures near vapor pressure requires the
presence of nuclei which contains minute amounts of vapor, gas, or both. Cavitation will happen only
when these nuclei become unstable and grow when subjected to pressure reduction.
The nuclei will remain stable as long as the partial pressure of the gas and vapor within the nucleus is
balanced by ambient pressure and the surface tension pressure at the nucleus -liquid interface.
Therefore, the condition for static equilibrium is that
Ambient pressure + Surface tension pressure = Vapor pressure + Gas pressure
PA + 2y/R = PV + Const/R^3

The pressure adjacent to the bubble has a minimum value which is below the vapor pressure of the
liquid. As long as the ambient pressure is above this minimum and the initial bubble radius is smaller
than the radius associated with it, the nucleus is stable and tends to reach an equilibrium radius along
the left-hand portion of the curve, see the image above, where the slope is negative. If however, the
pressure drops below the critical value, the bubble becomes unstable and grows without bound. A stable
nucleus can decrease in size and eventually disappear because its gas content diffuses into the
surrounding fluid.
Credit: Google

You might also like