Investigation of the Cavitation Within Venturi Tube: Influence of the Generated Vortex

Abstract

The main scope of the paper is evaluation of the experimental results and comparison of the dynamics of the vortex affected cavitating flow with the dynamics of purely axial flow within the Venturi nozzle. The analysis of the high-speed records with the sampling frequency of 20,000 images per second will be presented. Records will be analyzed using the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and spectral analysis of the pixel intensity within the selected region of images. These analyses will be done for the wide range of regimes for the both experimental configurations (with and without the swirl generator). Analysis of the pressure pulsations and vibrations will be utilized for the verification of the results. The cavitation patterns affected by the presence of the vortex will be described and compared with the case of axial inflow. The analysis of the experimental data will be complemented with the numerical computations of the chosen regimes carried out using the OpenFoam v1606+ and its multiphase interPhaseChangeFoam solver.