Modeling of Cavitation Bubble Cloud with Discrete Lagrangian Tracking

In this paper, a Lagrangian-Eulerian (LE) two-way coupling model is developed to numerically study the cavitation bubble cloud. In this model, the gas-liquid mixture is treated directly as a continuous and compressible fluid and the governing equations are solved by methods in Eulerian descriptions. An isobaric closure exhibiting better consistency properties is applied to evaluate the pressure of gas-liquid mixture. The dispersed gas/vapor bubbles are tracked in a Lagrangian fashion, and their compression and expansion are described by a modified Rayleigh-Plesset equation, which considers the close-by flow properties other than these of the infinity for each bubble. The performance of the present method is validated by a number of benchmark tests. Then, this model is applied to study how the bubble cloud affects the shape and propagation of a pressure wave when the pressure pulse travels through. In the end, a three-dimensional simulation of a vapor cloud’s Rayleigh collapse is carried out, and the induced extreme pressure is discussed in detail. The total bubble number’s influence on the extreme collapse pressure and the size distribution of bubbles during the collapse are also analyzed.