Evaluating cavitation regimes in an internal orifice at different temperatures using frequency analysis and visualization

Experiments on a water cavitating orifice were conducted to investigate the influence of pressure and temperature on flow regime transition due to cavitation. The thermal effects could be important in cases with cryogenic cavitation or hot fluid injection. The investigations were based on CCD observations and a pressure fluctuations frequency analysis. The high-speed photographic recordings were used to analyze the cavitation evolution and individuate the frequency content of the two-phase flow by processing the pixel-intensity time-series data. The cavitating structures showed different behaviors and characteristics with variations in operating conditions, as the pressure inside the orifice and the flow temperature. The flow regime map for the cavitating flow was obtained using experimental observations to analyze the occurrence of the different two-phase flow regime transitions at various operating conditions. As the pressure at the orifice inlet increased, at the same downstream pressure, cavitation inception occurred. The decrease of the cavitation number brought a significant increase in cavitation zone extension. As the pressure drop inside the orifice increased, the cavitation was characterized by an evident increase in cavitation zone length to the outlet of the orifice. With a further cavitation number decrease, the transition to jet cavitation was evident. The temperature influenced both the cavitation intensity and the cavitation number at which different two-phase flow regime transitions occurred, which tended to increase with temperature. The vapor fraction was estimated using an image processing algorithm. The frequency content given by the pressure fluctuations was analyzed and compared with the frequency spectra obtained from the visual observations. The behavior of the different cavitating flows could be correlated to the frequency spectrum of the pressure fluctuations measured upstream and downstream of the orifice. The cavitation number reduction and consequent increase in cavitating area width were related to a corresponding significant increase in the amplitude of typical frequency components. The transition to jet cavitation was characterized by a significant increase in the first peak in the frequency spectrum; weaker spectral peaks were also present at high cavitation numbers. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.