A Review of Models for Bubble Clusters in Cavitating Flows

Abstract

This paper reviews the various modeling strategies adopted in the literature to capture the response of bubble clusters to pressure changes. The first part is focused on the strategies adopted to model and simulate the response of individual bubbles to external pressure variations discussing the relevance of the various mechanisms triggered by the appearance and later collapse of bubbles. In the second part we review available models proposed for large scale bubbly flows used in different contexts including hydrodynamic cavitation, sound propagation, ultrasonic devices and shockwave induced cavitation processes. Finally we discuss the main challenges of cavitation models.