Towards the concept of hydrodynamic cavitation control

Chatterjee, D and Arakeri, VH (1997) Towards the concept of hydrodynamic cavitation control. In: Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 332 . pp. 377-394.

PDF Towards_the_concept.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (692kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

A careful study of the existing literature available in the field of cavitation reveals the potential of ultrasonics as a tool for controlling and, if possible, eliminating certain types of hydrodynamic cavitation through the manipulation of nuclei size present in a flow. A glass venturi is taken to be an ideal device to study the cavitation phenomenon at its throat and its potential control. A piezoelectric transducer, driven at the crystal resonant frequency, is used to generate an acoustic pressure field and is termed an �ultrasonic nuclei manipulator (UNM)�. Electrolysis bubbles serve as artificial nuclei to produce travelling bubble cavitation at the venturi throat in the absence of a UNM but this cavitation is completely eliminated when a UNM is operative. This is made possible because the nuclei, which pass through the acoustic field first, cavitate, collapse violently and perhaps fragment and go into dissolution before reaching the venturi throat. Thus, the potential nuclei for travelling bubble cavitation at the venturi throat seem to be systematically destroyed through acoustic cavitation near the UNM. From the solution to the bubble dynamics equation, it has been shown that the potential energy of a bubble at its maximum radius due to an acoustic field is negligible compared to that for the hydrodynamic field. Hence, even though the control of hydrodynamic macro cavitation achieved in this way is at the expense of acoustic micro cavitation, it can still be considered to be a significant gain. These are some of the first results in this direction.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Cambridge University Press.
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Mechanical Engineering
Date Deposited:	17 Aug 2011 06:51
Last Modified:	17 Aug 2011 06:51
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/39989

Actions (login required)

View Item