Cavitation Tutorial

Cavitation can occur in any device handling or moving through a liquid, and can have both positive and negative effects. Cavitation can degrade performance, cause noise and vibration and erode components. Positive uses of cavitation include ultrasonic cleaning homogenization of milk, enhancement of a broad range of chemical processes and biomedical applications such as kidney stone removal and sophisticated drug delivery systems.

The Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory has a long history of research activity in this field as well as extensive engineering experience in various applications. Fundamental research includes cavitation inception studies, super-cavitating and ventilated hydrofoil theory, hydroelastic phenomena, effect of cavitation on fluid transients, vortex cavitation, sheet/cloud cavitation, cavitation induced lift oscillations, effects on fluid transients cavitation erosion, and acoustics of bubbly flows, and many other related topics. The laboratory pioneered the development of cavitation nuclei measurement. At the same time, related efforts in the development of 3D, unsteady flow computational models was applied to sophisticated computer codes for calculating cavitating flow in complex geometry such as a large hydraulic turbine. As progress was made in computational fluid dynamics, the emphasis of this research has shifted from exclusively experimental and analytical studies to the use of an underactive experimental/numerical approach.

Fundamentals

Vortical Flows

Lifting Surfaces

Extra Material