A comparative study between numerical methods in simulation of cavitating bubbles
Journal article, 2019

In this paper, the performance of three different numerical approaches in cavitation modelling are compared by studying two benchmark test cases to understand the capabilities and limitations of each method. Two of the methods are the well established compressible thermodynamic equilibrium mixture model and the incompressible transport equation finite mass transfer mixture model, which are compared with a third method, a recently developed Lagrangian discrete bubble model. In the Lagrangian model, the continuum flow field is treated similar to the finite mass transfer approach, however the cavities are represented by individual bubbles. Further, for the Lagrangian model, different ways to consider how the fluid pressure influences bubble dynamics are studied, including a novel way by considering the local pressure effect in the Rayleigh–Plesset equation. The first case studied is the Rayleigh collapse of a single bubble, which helps to understand each model behaviour in capturing the cavity interface and the surrounding pressure variations. The special differences between the Lagrangian and finite mass transfer models in this case clarify some possible origin for some limitations of the latter method. The second investigated case is the collapse of a cluster of bubbles, where the collapse of each bubble is affected by the dynamics of surrounding bubbles. This case confirms the importance of considering local pressure in the improved form of the Rayleigh–Plesset equation and illustrates the influence of the liquid compressibility for cavity modelling and appropriate capturing of the collapse pressure.

Finite mass transfer

Equilibrium model

Cavitation

Eulerian-Lagrangian model

Author

Ebrahim Ghahramani

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Marine Technology

Mohammad Hossein Arabnejad Khanouki

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Marine Technology

Rickard Bensow

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Marine Technology

International Journal of Multiphase Flow

0301-9322 (ISSN)

Vol. 111 339-359

Development and experimental validation of computational models for cavitating flows, surface erosion damage and material loss (CaFE)

European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/642536), 2015-01-01 -- 2019-01-01.

Areas of Advance

Transport

Energy

Subject Categories

Applied Mechanics

Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics

Infrastructure

C3SE (Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2018.10.010

More information

Latest update

5/6/2019 1