Flow-visualization and numerical investigation on the optimum design of cavitating jet nozzle

Cavitating jet is widely used in drilling,rock cutting and ocean re source exploitation because of its stro ng erosion ability.The analysis of the relationship between the flow characteristics and the structure of cavitating jet nozzle is critical.Here,we utilized 3 D printed technology and high-speed photography to design visualization experime nts to analyse the impact of the variation of resonator and throat size of the organ-pipe self-resonating cavitating nozzles on the cavitation characteristics through image processing.The velocity field,pressure field and vapor volume fraction injected by the nozzle were taken as the objective functions to study the influence of different structural parameters on the cavitation effect based on FLUENT 19.0 software,and the results were compared with the experimental results.The results show that increasing the length and diameter of the resonator contributes to the occurrence of cavitation and the structure stability of the flow field.However,excessive size affects self-resonant of the nozzle and makes it difficult to form resonance effect.In this study,the optimal values of nozzle throat length and divergent angle are twice the throat diameter and 40°,respectively.This research provides an integrated research method to study the optimization of self-resonating nozzle and cavitating jet characteristics.

Investigation of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene propellant breaking characteristics and mechanism impacted by submerged cavitation water jet

A submerged cavitation water jet(SCWJ)is an effective method to recycle solid propellant from obsolete solid engines by the breaking method.Solid propellant's breaking modes and mechanical process under SCWJ impact are unclear.This study aims to understand those impact breaking mechanisms.The hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene(HTPB)propellant was chosen as the research material,and a self-designed test system was used to conduct impact tests at four different working pressures.The high-speed camera characterized crack propagation,and the DIC method calculated strain change during the impact process.Besides,micro and macro fracture morphologies were characterized by scanning electron microscope(SEM)and computed tomography(CT)scanning.The results reveal that the compressive strain concentration region locates right below the nozzle,and the shear strain region distributes symmetrically with the jet axis,which increases to 4% at first 16th ms,the compressive strain rises to 2% and 6% in the axial and transverse direction,respectively.The two tensile cracks formed first at the compression strain concentrate region,and there generate many shear cracks around the tensile cracks,and those shear cracks that develop and aggregate cause the cracks to become wider and cut through the tensile cracks,forming the tensile-shear cracks and the impact parts eventually fail.The HTPB propellant forms a breaking hole shaped conical after impact 10 s.The mass loss increases by 17 times at maximum,with the working pressure increasing by three times.Meanwhile,the damage value of the breaking hole remaining on the surface increases by 7.8 times while 2.9 times in the depth of the breaking hole.The breaking efficiency is closely affected by working pressures.The failure modes of HTPB impacted by SCWJ are classified as tensile crack-dominated and tensile-shear crack-dominated damage mechanisms.

Jet Characteristics and Optimization of a Cavitation Nozzle for Hydraulic Fracturing Applications

Hydraulic jetting is a form of fracturing that involves using a high-pressure jet of water to create fractures in the reservoir rock with a nozzle serving as the central component of the hydraulic sandblasting perforation tool.In this study,the flow behavior of the nozzle is simulated numerically in the framework of a SST k-ωturbulence model.The results show that the nozzle structure can significantly influence the jet performance and related cavitation effect.Through orthogonal experiments,the nozzle geometric parameters are optimized,and the following configuration is found accordingly:contraction angle 20°,contraction segment length 6 mm,cylindrical segment diameter 6 mm,cylindrical segment length 12 mm,spread segment length 10 mm,and spread angle 55°.

Mechanisms and field test of solution mining by self-resonating cavitating water jets

Rapid solution mining is the key to cavern construction in salt formations. Rapid solution mining technology with self-resonating cavitating water jets is described in this paper. It can generate three main physical effects： helical flow dissolution, self-resonating cavitating jet erosion, and ultrasonic waves. A self-resonating cavitating nozzle was also designed with the principles based on theory of fluid transients and hydro-acoustics. Under ambient pressure, the experimental results show that the impulse amplitude of pressure reaches a peak at a standoff distance of 5-13 times the nozzle outlet diameter and the cutting ability of self-resonating cavitating jets is twice that of conventional jets under the same conditions. Compared with the conventional mining method, the field test indicates that rapid solution mining technology with self-resonating cavitating jets can speed the construction by more than 2 times at the pocket stage of cavern development.

Erosion characteristics and mechanism of the self-resonating cavitating jet impacting aluminum specimens under the confining pressure conditions

In order to study the effects of the confining pressure on the erosion characteristics of the self-resonating cavitating jet under wellbore and deep-water conditions,experiments are conducted on aluminum specimens impinged by the organ pipe cavitation nozzle and the conical nozzle with the confining pressure in the range 0 MPa–10.0 MPa.Meanwhile,through the numerical simulation of the collapsing process of the cavitation bubble and the noise test,the cavitation erosion mechanism is analyzed.The experimental results show that the optimal standoff distance and the confining pressure can be obtained for the maximum erosion quantities,and the optimal standoff distance is 5 to 7 times greater than the equivalent nozzle outlet diameter and the confining pressure is about 2.0 MPa.Under the same conditions,the erosion caused by the cavitation nozzle is up to 2 times larger than that caused by the conical nozzle.According to the numerical simulation and the noise test,the cavitation erosion on the aluminum specimens is mostly caused by mechanical forces due to the high-frequency pressure pulse generated during the collapse of cavitation bubbles,while just a small part is caused by micro-jets.

Structure optimization of the organ-pipe cavitating nozzle and its erosion ability test on hydrate-bearing sediments

Cavitating jet is a promising drilling rate improvement technology in both the marine natural gas hydrate (NGH) fluidization exploitation method and the integrated radial jet drilling and completion method. In present study, we aim to improve the efficiency of jet erosion and extracting NGH. With a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, the pressure, velocity and cavitation field characteristics of organ-pipe cavitating jet (OPCJ) are analysed. The divergent angle, throat length, and divergent length of OPCJ nozzle are preferred to obtain stronger jet cavitation erosion effect. Laboratory experiments of gas hydrate-bearing sediments (GHBS) erosion by OPCJ and conical jet (CJ) are conducted to compare and validate the jet erosion performance. The impinging models of OPCJ and CJ are constructed to study the impact characteristics. Results show that the preferred values of divergent angle, throat length, and divergent length are 15°, 1d, and 3d, respectively, in present simulation conditions. For GHBS, the OPCJ possesses the advantages of high efficiency and low energy consumption. Moreover, the OPCJ has higher penetration efficiency, while showing equivalent penetration ability compared to CJ. During the impinging process, the OPCJ can induce stronger impact pressure and turbulence effect, and also shows stronger chambering effect and bottom cleaning ability compared to CJ. This study presents the erosion performance of OPCJ and CJ on GHBS, and provides preliminary insights on the potential field applications in NGH exploitation.

Effect of Geometrical Parameters on Submerged Cavitation Jet Discharged from Profiled Central-body Nozzle

The flow characteristics of cavitation jets are essential issues among relevant studies. The physical properties of the jet are largely determined by the geometrical parameters of the nozzle. The structure and cavitation jets characteristics of the angular-nozzle and the self-resonating cavitation nozzle have been extensively studied, but little research is conducted in the central-body cavitation nozzle mainly because of its hard processing and the cavitation jet effect not satisfactory. In this paper, a novel central-body nozzle (a non-plunger central-body nozzle with square outlet) is studied to solve above problems. Submerged jets discharged from the novel central-body nozzle are simulated, employing the full cavitation model. The impact of nozzle configuration on jet properties is analyzed. The analysis results indicate that when central-body relative diameter keeps constant, there is an optimal contraction degree of nozzle’s outlet, which can induce intense cavitation in the jet. The central-body relative diameter also affects jet profiles. In the case of large central-body relative diameter, most of the bubbles settle in the jet core. On the contrary, a smaller relative diameter makes bubbles concentrate in the interface between the jet and its surrounding fluid. Moreover, the shorter outlet part allows the cavitation zone further extend in both the axial and racial directions. The research results further consummate the study on the central-body nozzles and the correlation between cavitation jet and the structure, and elementarily reveal the mechanism of cavitation jet produced in a non-plunger novel central-body nozzle and the effect of the structure parameters on the cavitation jet, moreover, provide the theoretical basis for the optimal design of the nozzle.

Cavitation of a Submerged Jet at the Spherical Valve Plate/Cylinder Block Interface for Axial Piston Pump

The spherical valve plate/cylinder block pair has the advantages of strong overturning resistance and large bearing area.However,the configurations of the unloading and pre-boosting triangular grooves on the spherical valve plate are different from those in the planar valve plate,resulting in special cavitation phenomenon on the spherical port plate pair.In order to study cavitation characteristics of spherical port plate pair,a dynamic CFD model of the piston pump including turbulence model,cavitation model and fluid compressibility is established.A detailed UDF compilation scheme is provided for modelling of the micron-sized spherical oil film mesh,which makes up for the lack of research on the meshing of the spherical oil film.In this paper,using CFD simulation tools,from the perspectives of pressure field,velocity field and gas volume fraction change,a detailed analysis of the transient evolution of the submerged cavitation jet in a axial piston pump with spherical valve plate is carried out.The study indicates the movement direction of the cavitation cloud cluster through the cloud image and the velocity vector direction of the observation point.The sharp decrease of velocity and gas volume fraction indicates the collapse phenomenon of bubbles on the part wall surface.These discoveries verify the special erosion effect in case of the spherical valve plate/cylinder block pair.The submerged cavitation jet generated by the unloading triangular grooves distributed on the spherical valve plate not only cause denudation of the inner wall surface of the valve plate,but also cause strong impact and denudation on the lower surface of the cylinder body.Finally,the direction of the unloading triangular groove was modified to extend the distance between it and the wall surface which can effectively alleviate the erosion effect.

Passive control of cavitating flow around an axisymmetric projectile by using a trip bar

Quasi-periodical evolutions such as shedding and collapsing of unsteady cloud cavitating flow, induce strong pressure fluctuations, what may deteriorate maneuvering stability and corrode surfaces of underwater vehicles. This paper analyzed effects on cavitation stability of a trip bar arranged on high-speed underwater projectile. Small scale water tank experiment and large eddy simulation using the open source software Open FOAM were used, and the results agree well with each other. Results also indicate that trip bar can obstruct downstream re-entrant jet and pressure wave propagation caused by collapse, resulting in a relatively stable sheet cavity between trip bar and shoulder of projectiles.

Recent progress on the jetting of single deformed cavitation bubbles near boundaries

Cavitation occurs widely in nature and engineering and is a complex problem with multiscale features in both time and space due to its associating violent oscillations. To understand the important but complicated phenomena and fluid mechanics behind cavitation, a great deal of effort has been invested in investigating the collapse of a single bubble near different boundaries. This review aims to cover recent developments in the collapse of single bubbles in the vicinity of complex boundaries, including single boundaries and two parallel boundaries, and open questions for future research are discussed. Microjets are the most prominent features of the non-spherical collapse of cavitation bubbles near boundaries and are directed toward rigid walls and away from free surfaces. Such a bubble generally splits, resulting in the formation of two axial jets directed opposite to each other under the constraints of an elastic boundary or two parallel boundaries. The liquid jet penetrates the bubble, impacts the boundary, and exerts a great deal of stress on any nearby boundary. This phenomenon can cause damage, such as the erosion of blades in hydraulic machinery, the rupture of human blood vessels, and underwater explosions, but can also be exploited for applications, such as needle-free injection, drug and gene delivery, surface cleaning, and printing. Many fascinating developments related to these topics are presented and summarized in this review. Finally, three directions are proposed that seem particularly fruitful for future research on the interaction of cavitation bubbles and boundaries.

Determination of the shedding frequency of cavitation cloud in a submerged cavitation jet based on high-speed photography images

To accurately determine the shedding frequency of the cavitation cloud in a submerged cavitation jet,the spectral analysis and the proper orthogonal decomposition(POD)for high-speed photography images are performed.The spectrums of 6 different kinds of image signals(the area-averaged gray level,the line-averaged gray level,the point gray level,the cavitation length,width,and area)are calculated and compared.The line-averaged gray level is found to be optimal in determining the shedding frequency but an accurate frequency can only be obtained in the stable-frequency zone where the cavitation cloud sheds.In repeated experiments,the plateau-shape distribution of the main frequency is established with a deviation of 10.8%.A revised Reynolds number Re'is defined and the shedding frequency can be correlated to Re'by a power law when the cavitation number is less than 0.02.This relationship is validated by the experimental data in literature.The first mode of the POD characterizes the ensemble-average of the cavitation cloud while the second mode is the major part of the cavitation cloud transient components.The modes 2-5 are organized in pairs,which confirms the periodic feature of the cavitation cloud in the submerged cavitation jet.Near the nozzle exit,the modes 2-5 are symmetrically distributed in the jet shear layer.The shedding frequency of the cloud cavitation can also be precisely determined by performing the spectral analysis of the weighting coefficients of the mode 2.This paper shows that the two parameters,namely,the line-averaged gray level and the weighting coefficients of the mode 2,can be confidently used to calculate the shedding frequency of the cavitation cloud in a submerged cavitation jet.

Numerical analysis of bubble dynamics in the diffuser of a jet pump under variable ambient pressure

Recent studies have shown that the collapse of cavitation bubbles in a jet pump can generate an extremely high pressure with many potential applications. The dynamics of the bubble is governed by the Rayleigh-Plesset equation. With the bubble dynamics equation and the heat and mass transfer model solved with the Runge-Kutta fourth order adaptive step size method, the oscillations of the bubble in the diffuser of the jet pump are assessed under varied conditions. To obtain the pressure variation along the diffuser, the Bernoulli equation and the pressure measured in experiment are coupled. The results of simulation show that a transient motion of the bubbles can be obtained in the diffuser quantitatively, to obtain the pressure and temperature shock in the bubble. Moreover, increasing the outlet pressure coefficient would result in a more intense bubble collapsing process, which can be used in the subsequent studies of the cavitation applications. The predictions are compared with experiments with good agreement.