Numerical Studies on Cavitation and Surface Roughness
The study of cavitation is of topical interest in both physical and biological sciences. The surface roughness changes the effect of cavitation on a material surface. Due to cavitation, the material with low surface roughness value has relatively more damage, when compared to the one with higher value. In this paper, preliminary numerical studies are carried on cavitation and surface roughness. As a part of the code validation and calibration, the numerically predicted boundary-layer blockage at the Sanal flow choking condition for the channel flow is verified using the closed-form analytical model of V.R. Sanal Kumar et al. (AIP Advances, 8, 025315, 2018) at various surface roughness and found excellent agreement with the exact solution. Parametric analytical studies are carried out for examining the flow features at two different surface roughness and turbulence levels. We noticed that the wavy surface with small waves increases the Nussle number, therefore it is also considered for parametric analysis. Considering the defect-free smooth surface material, we presumed that the cavitation damage in the smooth surface is more than the rough surface because the smooth surface can generate more micro bubbles. These micro bubbles grow into macro bubbles which in turn results in cavitation. This study is a pointer towards for formulating various industrial topics with fluid-structural interaction problems for getting plausible solutions for meeting the needs of various industries.