Effect of liquid viscoelasticity on the interactions between cavitation bubbles and free surfaces

The influence of liquid viscoelasticity on the interaction between cavitation bubbles and free surfaces is of great practical significance in understanding bubble dynamics in biological systems. A series of millimeter cavitation bubbles were induced by laser near the free surfaces of the water and viscoelastic polyacrylamide (PAM) solutions with different concentrations. The effects of liquid viscoelasticity on the interactions of cavitation bubbles with free surfaces are analyzed from the perspectives of the evolution of free surface and bubble dynamics. The experimental results show that as the dimensionless standoff distance increases, the evolutions of free surface behaviors in all experimental fluids can be divided into six types of water mounds, i.e., breaking wrinkles, spraying water film, crown, swallowed water spike, hillock, and slight bulge. All the critical values of the dimensionless distance dividing different types decrease with increasing concentration. The evolutions of first four types of water mounds in PAM solutions differ from those in the water. Water droplets splashing in different directions are produced around the breaking wrinkles in the water. Meanwhile, the breaking wrinkles in PAM solution move with the “liquid filaments” towards the central axis. The water spike in the pattern of spraying water film in PAM solution is more stable than that in the water. As the solution concentration increases, the water skirt in the pattern of crown contracts earlier and faster, and the rate of increase in the height of the water skirt decreases. For swallowed water spike in PAM solution, the upper part of the newly formed water spike is not significantly thicker than the middle part, and thus the water waist structure does not form. Liquid viscoelasticity inhibits the bubble growth and collapse, and the bubble migration as well, especially in the second period. Shorter and thicker cavities are formed in PAM solutions with higher concentration, while slender and stable cavities formed in the water at the same dimensionless distance. The velocity and displacement of the tip of bullet jet both decrease as the solution concentration increases.

Extension Omega and Omega-Liutex methods applied to identify vortex structures in viscoelastic turbulent flow

The vortex structure plays a significant role in the investigation of the turbulent drag reduction effect of the viscoelastic turbulent flow.This paper aims to find out an optimal vortex identification method for the viscoelastic turbulent flows,and then studies the turbulent drag reduction mechanism by analyzing the characteristics of the identified vortex structures in the turbulent flows of the viscoelastic fluids.The Q,λ2,Liutex,Omega(Ω)and Omega-Liutex(ΩR)methods are adopted for the identification of vortex structures in the forced homogeneous isotropic turbulence(FHIT)with/without the polymer additive,respectively.The comparison among these five methods shows that the threshold values for the Q,λ2 and Liutex methods should be specially adjusted so as to suitably describe the strong and weak vortex structures in the FHIT of both the Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids,while a fixed threshold value of 0.52 for theΩandΩR methods is effective for both the Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids.The comparison between the identified vortex structures in the FHIT with and without the polymer additive indicates that theΩandΩR methods are more appropriate for the vortex identification because their dimensionless values with a fixed range from 0 to 1 can avoid the effect of the different ranges of the Q,λ2 and∣R∣(for the Liutex method)for the Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids.This also illustrates that theΩandΩR methods can be extended to identify the vortex structures in the turbulent flow of the viscoelastic fluid.Finally,the characteristics of the vortex structures in the FHIT of the viscoelastic fluid are analyzed by utilizing theΩandΩR methods.The results show that both the strong and weak vortex structures are inhibited by increasing the concentration of the polymer solution and by decreasing the Weissenberg number,especially for the weak vortex structures.

Numerical study on morphological characteristics of rotational natural supercavitation by rotational supercavitating evaporator with optimized blade shape

In view of the supercavitation effect, a novel device named the rotational supercavitating evaporator (RSCE) has been designed for the desalination. In order to improve the blade shape of the rotational cavitator in the RSCE for the performance optimization, the blade shapes of different sizes are designed by utilizing the improved calculation method for the blade shape and the validated empirical formulae based on previous two-dimensional numerical simulations, from which the optimized blade shape with the wedge angle of 45° and the design speed of 5 000 r/min is selected. The estimation method for the desalination performance parameters is developed to validate the feasibility of the utilization of the results obtained by the two-dimensional numerical simulations in the design of the three-dimensional blade shape. Three-dimensional numerical simulations are then conducted for the supercavitating flows around the rotational cavitator with the optimized blade shape at different rotational speeds to obtain the morphological characteristics of the rotational natural supercavitation. The results show that the profile of the supercavity tail is concaved toward the inside of the supercavity due to the re-entrant jet. The empirical formulae for estimating the supercavity size with consideration of the rotation are obtained by fitting the data, with the exponents different from those obtained by the previous two-dimensional numerical simulations. The influences of the rotation on the morphological characteristics are analyzed from the perspectives of the tip and hub vortices and the interaction between the supercavity tail and the blade. Further numerical simulation of the supercavitating flow around the rotational cavitator made up by the blades with exit edge of uniform thickness illustrate that the morphological characteristics are also affected by the blade shape.