Special Issue on “CFD Based Researches and Applications for Fluid Machinery and Fluid Device”

The demand for computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based numerical techniques is increasing rapidly with the development of the computing power system [...]

BUBBLE DYNAMICS-BASED MODELING OF THE CAVITATION DYNAMICS IN LUBRICATED CONTACTS

Cavitation is a common phenomenon in fluid machinery and lubricated contacts. In lubricated contacts, there is a presumption that the short-term tensile stresses at the onset of bubble formation have an influence on material wear. To investigate the duration and magnitude of tensile stresses in lubricating films using numerical simulation, a suitable simulation model must be developed. The chosen simulation approach with bubble dynamics is based on the coupling of the Reynolds equation and Rayleigh-Plesset equation (introduced about 20 years ago by Someya).Following the basic approach from the author’s earlier papers on the negative squeeze motion with bubble dynamics for the simulation of mixed lubrication of rough surfaces, the paper at hand shows modifications to the Rayleigh-Plesset equation that are required to get the time scale for the dynamic processes right. This additional term is called the dilatational viscosity term, and it significantly influences the behavior of the numerical model.

Numerical Investigation on Cavitation Suppression of Microchannel over a NACA0012 Hydrofoil

To find a better method to suppress cavitation, a microchannel design connecting the internal low-pressure area with the outside is proposed for the first time in this paper; the method was adopted to replenish fluid in the interior of the low-pressure area to inhibit cavitation. Through numerical simulation, it is found that the size and position of microchannel have a certain influence on the cavitation inhibition. The results show that the generation and development of cavitation, under the same working conditions, can be effectively restrained by adopting appropriate microchannel (x = 0.05 c, d = 6 cm). Compared with the original hydrofoil, the scale of cavitation is reduced by nearly 50%, and its turbulent kinetic energy remains unchanged. Therefore, it is considered that microchannel technology, as a new means of cavitation suppression, is of great significance to other types of fluid machinery.