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Encyclopedia > Cavitation
Cavitating propeller model in a water tunnel experiment
Cavitating propeller model in a water tunnel experiment
High speed jet of fluid impact on a fixed surface.
High speed jet of fluid impact on a fixed surface.
Cavitation damages on a valve plate for an axial piston hydraulic pump.
Cavitation damages on a valve plate for an axial piston hydraulic pump.

Cavitation is a general term used to describe the behavior of voids or bubbles in a liquid. Cavitation is usually divided into two classes of behavior: inertial (or transient) cavitation and non-inertial cavitation. Inertial cavitation is the process where a void or bubble in a liquid rapidly collapses, producing a shock wave. Such cavitation often occurs in pumps, propellers, impellers, and in the vascular tissues of plants. Non-inertial cavitation is the process where a bubble in a fluid is forced to oscillate in size or shape due to some form of energy input, such as an acoustic field. Such cavitation is often employed in ultrasonic cleaning baths and can also be observed in pumps, propellers etc. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Cavitating-prop. ... Image File history File links Cavitating-prop. ... Cavitation tunnel of the Versuchsanstalt für Wasserbau und Schiffbau in Berlin A water tunnel is an experimental facility used for testing the hydrodynamic behavior of submerged bodies in flowing water. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Gearpump with external teeth Gearpump with internal teeth A gerotor (image does not show intake or exhaust) Fixed displacement vane pump Principle of screw pump Axial piston pump, bent axis principle Axial piston pump, swashplate principle Radial piston pump O YEA A Hydraulic pump is a pump that is used... An impeller is a rotor inside a tube or conduit to increase the pressure and flow of a fluid. ... Link title An ultrasonic cleaner Ultrasonic cleaners, sometimes mistakenly called supersonic cleaners, are cleaning devices that use ultrasound (usually from 15-400 kHz) to clean delicate items. ...

Contents

Inertial cavitation

Inertial cavitation was first studied by Lord Rayleigh in the late 19th century when he considered the collapse of a spherical void within a liquid. When a volume of liquid is subjected to a sufficiently low pressure it may rupture and form a cavity. This phenomenon is termed cavitation inception and may occur behind the blade of a rapidly rotating propeller or on any surface vibrating underwater with sufficient amplitude and acceleration. Other ways of generating cavitation voids involve the local deposition of energy such as an intense focussed laser pulse (optic cavitation) or with an electrical discharge through a spark. Vapor gasses evaporate into the cavity from the surrounding medium, thus the cavity is not a perfect vacuum but has a relatively low gas pressure. Such a low pressure cavitation bubble in a liquid will begin to collapse due to the higher pressure of the surrounding medium. As the bubble collapses, the pressure and temperature of the vapor within will increase. The bubble will eventually collapse to a minute fraction of its original size, at which point the gas within dissipates into the surrounding liquid via a rather violent mechanism, which releases a significant amount of energy in the form of an acoustic shock-wave and as visible light. At the point of total collapse, the temperature of the vapor within the bubble may be several thousand kelvin, and the pressure several hundred atmospheres. See also Rayleigh fading Rayleigh scattering Rayleigh number Rayleigh waves Rayleigh-Jeans law External links Nobel website bio of Rayleigh About John William Strutt MacTutor biography of Lord Rayleigh Categories: People stubs | 1842 births | 1919 deaths | Nobel Prize in Physics winners | Peers | British physicists | Discoverer of a chemical element ... This article is about pressure in the physical sciences. ... For other uses, see Kelvin (disambiguation). ...


Inertial cavitation can also occur in the presence of an acoustic field. Microscopic gas bubbles which are generally present in a liquid will be forced to oscillate due to an applied acoustic field. If the acoustic intensity is sufficiently high, the bubbles will first grow in size, and then rapidly collapse. Hence, inertial cavitation can occur even if the rarefaction in the liquid is insufficient for a Rayleigh-like void to occur. High power ultrasonics usually utilize the inertial cavitation of microscopic vacuum bubbles for treatment of surfaces, liquids and slurries. Rarefaction is the reduction of a mediums density, or the opposite of compression. ... Ultrasound is sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing, approximately 20 kilohertz. ...


The physical process of cavitation inception is similar to boiling. The major difference between the two is the thermodynamic paths which precede the formation of the vapor. Boiling occurs when the local vapor pressure of the liquid rises above its local ambient pressure and sufficient energy is present to cause the phase change to a gas. Cavitation inception occurs when the local pressure falls sufficiently far below the saturated vapor pressure, a value given by the tensile strength of the liquid. Boiling, a type of phase transition, is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which typically occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding atmospheric pressure. ...


In order for cavitation inception to occur, the cavitation "bubbles" generally need a surface on which they can nucleate. This surface can be provided by the sides of a container or by impurities in the liquid or by small undissolved microbubble within the liquid. It is generally accepted that hydrophobic surfaces stabilize small bubbles. These pre-existing bubbles start to grow unbounded when they are exposed to a pressure below the threshold pressure, termed Blake's threshold. Bubbles in a soft drink each nucleate independently, responding to a decrease in pressure. ... Impurities are substances inside a confined amount of liquid, gas, or solid, which differ from the chemical composition of the material or compound. ... Hydrophobe (from the Greek (hydros) water and (phobos) fear) in chemistry refers to the physical property of a molecule that is repelled by water. ...


Non-inertial cavitation

Non-inertial cavitation is the process where small bubbles in a liquid are forced to oscillate in the presence of an acoustic field, when the intensity of the acoustic field is insufficient to cause total bubble collapse. This form of cavitation causes significantly less erosion than inertial cavitation, and is often used for the cleaning of delicate materials, such as silicon wafers.


Problems

Cavitation damage of a Francis turbine.

Cavitation is, in many cases, an undesirable occurrence. In devices such as propellers and pumps, cavitation causes a great deal of noise, damage to components, vibrations, and a loss of efficiency. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2304x1728, 884 KB) Summary Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Cavitation Water turbine Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2304x1728, 884 KB) Summary Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Cavitation Water turbine Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Francis turbine (courtsey Voith-Siemens). ... For other uses, see Propeller (disambiguation). ... This article is about a mechanical device. ...


When the cavitation bubbles collapse, they force liquid energy to very small volumes, thereby creating spots of high temperature and emitting shock waves, the latter of which a source of noise. The noise created by cavitation is a particular problem for military submarines, as it increases the chances of being detected by sonar. For other uses, see Submarine (disambiguation). ... This article is about underwater sound propagation. ...


Although the collapse of a cavity is a relatively low energy event, highly localized collapses can erode metals, such as steel, over time. The pitting caused by the collapse of cavities produces great wear on components and can dramatically shorten a propeller or pump's lifetime.


In industry, cavitation is often used to homogenize, or mix and break down suspended particles in a colloidal liquid compound, such as paint mixtures, or milk. Many industrial mixing machines are based upon this design principle. It is usually achieved through impeller design, or by forcing the mixture through an annular opening that has a narrow entrance orifice with a much larger exit orifice. In the latter case, the drastic decrease in pressure as the liquid accelerates into a larger volume induces cavitation. This method can be controlled with hydraulic devices that control inlet orifice size, allowing for dynamic adjustment during the process, or modification for different substances. The outer surface of this type of mixing valve, upon which the cavitation bubbles are driven against to cause their implosion, undergoes tremendous stress, and is often constructed of super-hard or tough materials such as stainless steel, Stellite, or even polycrystalline diamond (PCD). Homogenization (or homogenisation) is a term used in many fields such as Chemistry, agricultural science, food technology, sociology and cell biology. ... Stellite is also the name of a winning racehorse trained in Scotland, sometimes called The Burr. ...


Cavitating water purification devices have also been designed, in which the extreme conditions of cavitation can break down pollutants and organic molecules. Spectral analysis of light emitted in sonochemical reactions reveal chemical and plasma based mechanisms of energy transfer. The light emitted from cavitation bubbles is termed sonoluminesence. Control room and schematics of the water purification plant to Bret lake. ... In chemistry, the study of sonochemistry is concerned with understanding the effect of sonic waves and wave properties on chemical systems. ... Long exposure image of multi-bubble sonoluminescence created by a high intensity ultrasonic horn immersed in a beaker of liquid. ...


Hydrophobic chemicals are attracted underwater by cavitation as the pressure difference between the bubbles and the liquid water forces them to join together. This effect may assist in protein folding.[1]


Biomedical application

Cavitation plays an important role for the destruction of kidney stones in shock wave lithotripsy. Currently it is tested if cavitation can be used to transfer large molecules into biological cells (sonoporation). Nitrogen cavitation is a method used in research to lyse cell membranes while leaving organelles intact. Cavitation also probably plays a role in HIFU, a non-invasive treatment methodology for cancer. “Bladder stone” redirects here. ... A lithotriptor is a medical device used in the non-invasive treatment of kidney stones (urinary calculosis) and biliary calculi (stones in the gallbladder or in the liver). ... Drawing of the structure of cork as it appeared under the microscope to Robert Hooke from Micrographia which is the origin of the word cell being used to describe the smallest unit of a living organism Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green) The cell is the... This article is about the biological definition of the word Lysis. ... HIFU, or high intensity focused ultrasound, also referred to as Focused Ultrasound Surgery (FUS), is a term used describe a minimally or non-invasive method to deposit acoustic energy into tissue. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ...


Pumps and propellers

Major places where cavitation occurs are in pumps, on propellers, or at restrictions in a flowing liquid.


As an impeller's (in a pump), or propeller's (as in the case of a ship or submarine) blades move through a fluid, low pressure areas are formed as the fluid accelerates around and moves past the blades. The faster the blades move, the lower the pressure around it can become. As it reaches vapor pressure, the fluid vaporizes and forms small bubbles of gas. This is cavitation. When the bubbles collapse later, they typically cause very strong local shockwaves in the fluid, which may be audible and may even damage the blades. Evaporation is the process whereby atoms or molecules in a liquid state (or solid state if the substance sublimes) gain sufficient energy to enter the gaseous state. ... Look up bubble in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...


Cavitation in pumps may occur in two different forms:


Suction cavitation

Suction cavitation occurs when the pump suction is under a low pressure/high vacuum condition where the liquid turns into a vapor at the eye of the pump impeller. This vapor is carried over to the discharge side of the pump where it no longer sees vacuum and is compressed back into a liquid by the discharge pressure. This imploding action occurs violently and attacks the face of the impeller. An impeller that has been operating under a suction cavitation condition can have large chunks of material removed from its face or very small bits of material removed causing the impeller to look sponge like. Both cases will cause premature failure of the pump often due to bearing failure. Suction cavitation is often identified by a sound like gravel or marbles in the pump casing. Suction is the creation of a partial vacuum, or region of low pressure. ...


Discharge cavitation

Discharge cavitation occurs when the pump discharge pressure is extremely high, normally occurring in a pump that is running at less than 10% of its best efficiency point. The high discharge pressure causes the majority of the fluid to circulate inside the pump instead of being allowed to flow out the discharge. As the liquid flows around the impeller it must pass through the small clearance between the impeller and the pump cutwater at extremely high velocity. This velocity causes a vacuum to develop at the cutwater (similar to what occurs in a venturi) which turns the liquid into a vapor. A pump that has been operating under these conditions shows premature wear of the impeller vane tips and the pump cutwater. In addition, due to the high pressure conditions, premature failure of the pump's mechanical seal and bearings can be expected. Under extreme conditions, this can break the impeller shaft. This article is about velocity in physics. ... A Venturi meter is shown in a diagram, the pressure in 1 conditions is higher than 2, and the relationship between the fluid speed in 2 and 1 respectively, is the same as for pressure. ...


Discharge cavitation is believed to be the cause of the cracking of joints.Serious damages are caused by cavitation. Cracking knuckles is the practice of manipulating ones fingers such that the hand (most usually the knuckle joint) produces a sharp sound, likened to cracking (also likened to popping, etc). ...


Cavitation in engines

Some bigger diesel engines suffer from cavitation due to high compression and undersized cylinder walls. Vibrations of the cylinder wall induce alternating low and high pressure in the coolant against the cylinder wall. The result is pitting of the cylinder wall that will eventually let cooling fluid leak into the cylinder and combustion gases to leak into the coolant. Diesel engines in a museum Diesel generator on an oil tanker A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine which operates using the Diesel cycle. ... Cylinder with piston in a steam engine A cylinder in the central working part of a reciprocating engine, the space in which a piston travels. ... Watercooling is a method of heat removal from components. ... A coolant, or heat transfer fluid, is a fluid which flows through a device in order to prevent its overheating, transferring the heat produced by the device to other devices that utilize or dissipate it. ...


It is possible to prevent this from happening with chemical additives in the cooling fluid that form a protecting layer on the cylinder wall. This layer will be exposed to the same cavitation, but rebuilds itself.


Vascular plants

Cavitation occurs in the xylem of vascular plants when the water potential becomes so great that dissolved air within the water expands to fill the plant cell - either vessel elements or tracheids. Plants are generally able to repair cavitated xylem, for example with root pressure, but for others such as vines, cavitation often leads to mortality. In some trees, the sound of the cavitation is clearly audible. In the autumn the dropping temperature increases the formation of air bubbles in the tracheids of some plant species, causing them to drop their leaves. In vascular plants, xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue, phloem being the other one. ... Divisions Non-seed-bearing plants Equisetophyta Lycopodiophyta Psilotophyta Pteridophyta Superdivision Spermatophyta Pinophyta Cycadophyta Ginkgophyta Gnetophyta Magnoliophyta The vascular plants are those plants that have specialized cells for conducting water and sap within their tissues, including the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, but not mosses, algae, and the like (nonvascular... Tracheids are elongated cells in the xylem of vascular plants, serving in the transport of water. ...


Marine Life

Just as cavitation bubbles form on a fast spinning boat propeller, they may also form on the tails and fins of aquatic animals. The effects of cavitation are especially important near the surface of the ocean where the ambient water pressure is relatively low and cavitation is more likely to occur.


For powerful swimming animals like dolphins and tuna, cavitation may be detrimental because it limits their maximum swimming speed.[2] Even if they have the power to swim faster, dolphins may have to restrict their speed because collapsing cavitation bubbles on their tail are too painful. Cavitation also slows tuna, but for a different reason. Unlike dolphins, these fish do not feel the painful bubbles because they have bony fins without nerve endings. Nevertheless they cannot swim faster because the cavitation bubbles create an air film around their fins that limits their speed. Lesions have been found on tuna that are consistent with cavitation damage. This article is about the dolphin mammal. ... For other uses, see Tuna (disambiguation). ...


Cavitation is not always a limitation for sea life. Some animals have found ways to use it to their advantage when hunting prey. The pistol shrimp snaps a specialized claw to create cavitation, which can kill small fish. The mantis shrimp (type smasher) uses cavitation as well in order to stun, smash open, or kill the shellfish that it feasts upon. Binomial name Alpheus bellulus , Tiger pistol shrimp (Alpheus bellulus) is a type of shrimp, also called Symbiosis Shrimp, or Snapping Shrimp. ... Suborders, superfamilies and families [1] Suborder Archaestomatopodea Tyrannophontidae† Suborder Unipeltata Bathysquilloidea Bathysquillidae Indosquillidae Gonodactyloidea Alainosquillidae Hemisquillidae Gonodactylidae Odontodactylidae Protosquillidae Pseudosquillidae Takuidae Erythrosquilloidea Erythrosquillidae Lysiosquilloidea Coronididae Lysiosquillidae Nannosquillidae Tetrasquillidae Squilloidea Squillidae Eurysquilloidea Eurysquillidae Parasquilloidea Parasquillidae Mantis shrimp or stomatopods are marine crustaceans belonging to the order Stomatopoda, one part of the...


Coastal erosion

In the last half a decade, coastal erosion in the form of inertial cavitation has been generally accepted.[3] Air pockets in an incoming wave are forced into cracks in the cliff being eroded, the force of the wave then compresses the air pockets until the bubble implodes, becoming liquid, giving off various forms of energy which blast apart the rock.


List of cavitation tunnels

See also: Water tunnel (hydrodynamic)

Cavitation tunnel of the Versuchsanstalt für Wasserbau und Schiffbau in Berlin A water tunnel is an experimental facility used for testing the hydrodynamic behavior of submerged bodies in flowing water. ...

Canada

  • National Research Council - Institute for Ocean Technology Cavitation Tunnel, [1], St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada

France

  • "Tunnel de Cavitation" Ecole Navale [2], Lanveoc
  • "Grand Tunnel Hydrodynamique" Bassin d'Essais des Carènes [3], Val de Reuil

Germany

  • Multiple cavitation tunnels at the Versuchsanstalt für Wasserbau und Schiffbau [4], Berlin
  • Large Cavitation tunnel at Hamburg Ship Model Basin [5],Hamburg

Iran

  • Applied Hydrodynamics Laboratory, Iran University of Science and Technology, [6], Narmak, Tehran, Iran.

Netherlands

  • Large Cavitation Tunnel and High Speed Cavitation Tunnel [7] at the Maritime Research Institute, Wageningen.

Norway

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, known by its Norwegian acronym NTNU (from Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet), is located in Trondheim. ...

Poland

  • Ship Design and Research Centre (CTO S.A.) Centrum Techniki Okrętowej S.A., [9], Gdansk, Poland.

South Korea

  • Samsung Ship Model Basin (SSMB), Samsung Heavy Industries, [10], Daejeon, South Korea.

Sweden

Taiwan

  • The Large Cavitation Tunnel at National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan

United Kingdom

Newcastle University is a British university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England. ...

United States

  • The Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel The Pennsylvania State University [13], State College, PA
  • The William B. Morgan Large Cavitation Channel [14], Memphis, TN
  • MIT's variable pressure water tunnel [15]

See also

Supercavitation is the use of cavitation effects to create a large bubble of gas inside a liquid, allowing an object to travel at great speed through the liquid by being wholly enveloped by the bubble. ... The supercavitating propeller is a variant of a propeller for propulsion in water, where cavitation (formation of water vapour) is actively employed to gain increased speed by reduced friction. ... Long exposure image of multi-bubble sonoluminescence created by a high intensity ultrasonic horn immersed in a beaker of liquid. ... The Euler number or cavitation number is a dimensionless number used in flow calculations. ... Ultrasound is sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing, approximately 20 kilohertz. ... Erosion corrosion, also known as impingement damage, is the combined effect of corrosion and erosion caused by rapid flowing turbulent water. ...

External links

Look up cavitation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 151 languages. ...

References

  1. ^ Sandia researchers solve mystery of attractive surfaces. Sandia National Laboratories (2006-08-02). Retrieved on 2007-10-17.
  2. ^ Brahic, Catherine. "Dolphins swim so fast it hurts", NewScientist, 2008-03-28. Retrieved on 2008-03-31. (English) 
  3. ^ Panizza, Mario (1996). Environmental Geomorphology. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 112-115. ISBN 0444898301. 

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 214th day of the year (215th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 290th day of the year (291st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 87th day of the year (88th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 90th day of the year (91st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

For cavitation in plants, see Plant Physiology, by Taiz and Zeiger. For cavitation in engineering field, visit [16]

  • Kornfelt, M.: "On the destructive action of cavitation", Journal of applied Physics No.15, 1944.

  Results from FactBites:
 
Cavitation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1795 words)
Cavitation is a general term used to describe the behaviour of voids or bubbles in a liquid.
Such cavitation often occurs in pumps, propellers, impellers,and in the vascular tissues of plants.Non-inertial cavitation is the process where a bubble in a fluid is forced to oscillate in size or shape due to some form of energy input, such as an acoustic field.
Non-inertial cavitation is the process where small bubbles in a liquid are forced to oscillate in the presence of an acoustic field, when the intensity of the acoustic field is insufficient to cause total bubble collapse.
cavitation: Definition and Much More From Answers.com (2034 words)
Cavitation in the engineering sense is characterized by an explosive growth and occurs at suitable combinations of low pressure and high speed in pipelines; in hydraulic machines such as turbines, pumps, and propellers; on submerged hydrofoils; behind blunt submerged bodies; and in the cores of vortical structures.
Cavitation is undesirable because it produces extensive erosion of the rotating blades, additional noise from the resultant knocking and vibrations, and a significant reduction of efficiency because it distorts the flow pattern.
Cavitation is the phenomenon where small and largely empty cavities are generated in a fluid, which expand to large size and then rapidly collapse, producing a sharp sound.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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