Study of Quantitative Numerical Prediction of Cavitation Erosion in Cavitating Flow

2012 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoya Ochiai ◽  
Yuka Iga ◽  
Motohiko Nohmi ◽  
Toshiaki Ikohagi

Cavitation erosion is a material damage phenomenon caused by the repeated application of impulsive pressure on a material surface induced by bubble collapse, and the establishment of a method by which to numerically predict cavitation erosion is desired. In the present study, a numerical quantitative prediction method of cavitation erosion in a cavitating flow is proposed. In the present method, a one-way coupled analysis of a cavitating flow field based on a gas-liquid two-phase Navier–Stokes equation (Eulerian) and bubbles in the cavitating flow by bubble dynamics (Lagrangian) is used to treat temporally and spatially different scale phenomena, such as the macroscopic phenomenon of a cavitating flow and the microscopic phenomenon of bubble collapse. Impulsive pressures acting on a material surface are evaluated based on the bubble collapse position, time, and intensity, and the erosion rate is quantitatively predicted using an existing material-dependent relationship between the impulsive energy (square of the impulsive force) and the maximum erosion rate. The erosion rate on a NACA0015 hydrofoil surface in an unsteady transient cavitating flow is predicted by the proposed method. The distribution of the predicted erosion rate corresponds qualitatively to the distribution of an experimental surface roughness increment of the same hydrofoil. Furthermore, the predicted erosion rate considering the bubble nuclei distribution is found to be of the same order of magnitude as the actual erosion rate, which indicates that considering bubble nuclei distribution is important for the prediction of cavitation erosion and that the present prediction method is valid to some degree.

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacijo Biluš ◽  
Marko Hočevar ◽  
Matevž Dular ◽  
Luka Lešnik

Abstract Numerical prediction of cavitation erosion is a great scientific and technological challenge. In the past, many attempts were made—many successful. One of the issues when a comparison between a simulation and erosion experiments is made, is the great difference in time scale. In this work, we do not attempt to obtain quantitatively accurate predictions of erosion process but concentrate qualitatively on cavitation mechanisms with quantitative prediction of pressure pulses which lead to erosion. This is possible, because of our recent experimental work on simultaneous observation of cavitating flow and cavitation erosion by high speed cameras. In this study, the numerical simulation was used to predict details of the cavitation process during the vapor collapse phase. The fully compressible, cavitating flow simulations were performed to resolve the formation of the pressure waves at cavitation collapse. We tried to visualize the mechanisms and dynamics of vapor structures during collapse phase at the Venturi geometry. The obtained results show that unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulation of cavitation is capable of reproducing four out of five mechanisms of cavitation erosion, found during experimental work.


Author(s):  
Paul Cooper ◽  
Ron Ungewitter ◽  
Rehan Farooqi ◽  
James McKenzie ◽  
Bruno Schiavello ◽  
...  

The conventionally-designed first-stage impeller of a high-energy, two-stage 19MW seawater injection pump, running at 4950 rpm and generating 1500m of head at a flow rate of 1.05 m3/s was seriously damaged by cavitation erosion in the first two months of operation. The impeller was redesigned by reshaping the blades in the region near the leading edges so as to reduce the inception cavitation number. This impeller has been running for more than a year, and the cavitation erosion rate is predicted to be low enough for it to last 40,000 hours. However, a prominent tone at blade passing frequency appeared with the new impeller, which interacts more effectively with the distorted inflow from the side-suction approach passage. Acoustic analysis of both single- and two-phase unsteady RANS CFD solutions corroborate the presence of this tone, which had not been observed when the pump operated with the original, conventional impeller.


Author(s):  
Motohiko Nohmi ◽  
Toshiaki Ikohagi ◽  
Yuka Iga

Bubble behavior in cavitating flow is analyzed for the development of practical erosion prediction method. CFD analysis with cavitation model is carried out for the flow field around a hydrofoil. Afterwards computation of bubble dynamics is carried out coupled with flow field CFD results by one way approach. For the bubble dynamic calculation, Rayleigh-Plesset equation is adopted. Bubble behaviors in the collapse of cloud cavitaion and in the break off of sheet cavity are analyzed. Bubble behavior at the trailing edge of sheet cavity is also calculated. It is observed that steep pressure change in the flow causes oscillation of the bubbles. Based on this qualitative information of bubble behaviors, numerical cavitation aggressiveness is simply defined. This numerical cavitation aggressiveness is a function of local void fraction and pressure over the solid surface and can be calculated directly from the cavitating flow field CFD results without concerning bubble dynamics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoud Khojasteh-Manesh ◽  
Miralam Mahdi

In the present study, cavitation erosion is investigated by implementing an Eulerian–Lagrangian approach. Three-dimensional two-phase flow is simulated in a microscale nozzle using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) solver along with realizable k−ε turbulence model and Schnerr–Sauer cavitation model. The numerical results are in agreement with experimental observations. A modified form of Rayleigh–Plesset–Keller–Herring equation along with bubble motion equation is utilized to simulate bubble dynamics. Average values of mixture properties over bubble surface are used instead of bubble-center values in order to account for nonuniformities around the bubble. A one-way coupling method is used between Lagrangian analysis and RANS solution. The impact pressure resulted from bubble collapse is calculated for evaluation of erosion in diesel and soy methyl ester (SME) biodiesel in different situations. The results show that the initial size of the bubbles is an important factor for determining the intensity of erosion. So, the bubbles erosive power increases when their initial radius increases. It is also found that the intensity of erosion in diesel is much higher than that of biodiesel and this is because of the differences in fuels properties, especially in viscosity and vapor pressure. The effect of bubbles initial position on erosion intensity is also investigated in this study, and it is found that bubbles with the highest distance from sheet cavity termination have the highest contribution in erosion rate.


Wear ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 269 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 507-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuji Hattori ◽  
Takuya Hirose ◽  
Kenichi Sugiyama

1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 582-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroharu Kato ◽  
Akihisa Konno ◽  
Masatsugu Maeda ◽  
Hajime Yamaguchi

A scenario for quantitative prediction of cavitation erosion was proposed. The key value is the impact force/pressure spectrum on a solid surface caused by cavitation bubble collapse. As the first step of prediction, the authors constructed the scenario from an estimation of the cavity generation rate to the prediction of impact force spectrum, including the estimations of collapsing cavity number and impact pressure. The prediction was compared with measurements of impact force spectra on a partially cavitating hydrofoil. A good quantitative agreement was obtained between the prediction and the experiment. However, the present method predicted a larger effect of main flow velocity than that observed. The present scenario is promising as a method of predicting erosion without using a model test.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 168781401771294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linzheng Ye ◽  
Xijing Zhu

Cavitation will occur in the process of power ultrasonic honing. To explore the influence of cavitation on the material surface processed, an ultrasonic honing cavitation orthogonal experiment is conducted and three indicators are analyzed, which are pits’ maximum diameter, surface erosion rate, and surface roughness and can represent the single bubble collapse strength, the whole cavitation strength, and the impact of cavitation on material surface quality, respectively. The results show that cavitation leads to micro-pits on material surface. The main factors influencing the pits’ maximum diameter are distance and amplitude in turn; meanwhile, the shorter distance and the greater amplitude result in the larger pits’ maximum diameter. The surface erosion rate is mainly affected by experiment time and distance in order. Amplitude has the greatest influence on the surface roughness. The sample surface roughness reduces and surface quality improves in the condition of distance of 5 mm, amplitude of 65%, and experiment time of 1/3 min. Therefore, cavitation effect can help to enhance the workpiece surface quality in power ultrasonic honing under certain conditions, and the experimental analysis results have reference significance to the actual processing of ultrasonic honing.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2324
Author(s):  
Mirosław Szala ◽  
Dariusz Chocyk ◽  
Anna Skic ◽  
Mariusz Kamiński ◽  
Wojciech Macek ◽  
...  

From the wide range of engineering materials traditional Stellite 6 (cobalt alloy) exhibits excellent resistance to cavitation erosion (CE). Nonetheless, the influence of ion implantation of cobalt alloys on the CE behaviour has not been completely clarified by the literature. Thus, this work investigates the effect of nitrogen ion implantation (NII) of HIPed Stellite 6 on the improvement of resistance to CE. Finally, the cobalt-rich matrix phase transformations due to both NII and cavitation load were studied. The CE resistance of stellites ion-implanted by 120 keV N+ ions two fluences: 5 × 1016 cm−2 and 1 × 1017 cm−2 were comparatively analysed with the unimplanted stellite and AISI 304 stainless steel. CE tests were conducted according to ASTM G32 with stationary specimen method. Erosion rate curves and mean depth of erosion confirm that the nitrogen-implanted HIPed Stellite 6 two times exceeds the resistance to CE than unimplanted stellite, and has almost ten times higher CE reference than stainless steel. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms that NII of HIPed Stellite 6 favours transformation of the ε(hcp) to γ(fcc) structure. Unimplanted stellite ε-rich matrix is less prone to plastic deformation than γ and consequently, increase of γ phase effectively holds carbides in cobalt matrix and prevents Cr7C3 debonding. This phenomenon elongates three times the CE incubation stage, slows erosion rate and mitigates the material loss. Metastable γ structure formed by ion implantation consumes the cavitation load for work-hardening and γ → ε martensitic transformation. In further CE stages, phases transform as for unimplanted alloy namely, the cavitation-inducted recovery process, removal of strain, dislocations resulting in increase of γ phase. The CE mechanism was investigated using a surface profilometer, atomic force microscopy, SEM-EDS and XRD. HIPed Stellite 6 wear behaviour relies on the plastic deformation of cobalt matrix, starting at Cr7C3/matrix interfaces. Once the Cr7C3 particles lose from the matrix restrain, they debond from matrix and are removed from the material. Carbides detachment creates cavitation pits which initiate cracks propagation through cobalt matrix, that leads to loss of matrix phase and as a result the CE proceeds with a detachment of massive chunk of materials.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hirotoshi Sasaki ◽  
Yuka Iga

This study explains why the deep erosion pits are formed in liquid droplet impingement erosion even though the droplets uniformly impinge on the entire material surface. Liquid droplet impingement erosion occurs in fluid machinery on which droplets impinge at high speed. In the process of erosion, the material surface becomes completely roughened by erosion pits. In addition, most material surface is not completely smooth and has some degree of initial roughness from manufacturing and processing and so on. In this study, to consider the influence of the roughness on the material surface under droplet impingement, a numerical analysis of droplets impinging on the material surface with a single wedge and a single bump was conducted with changing offsets between the droplet impingement centers and the roughness centers on each a wedge bottom and a bump top. As results, two mechanisms are predicted from the present numerical results: the erosion rate accelerates and transitions from the incubation stage to the acceleration stage once roughness occurs on the material surface; the other is that deep erosion pits are formed even in the case of liquid droplets impinging uniformly on the entire material surface.


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