A STUDY ON CAVITATION AND CAVITATION DAMAGE IN A CAVITATION TUNNEL

The test results on cavitation and cavitation damage in a cavitation tunnel arepresented in this paper.The cavitator in the shape of 60 deg.symmetric wedge was mounted in-to the inlet of the working section of 20×40×170mm~3 in size.The velocities ranged from8.5m/s to 13.5m/s.At first,the flow structure around the wedge was revealed by a LaserDoppler Velocimetry.Then,the fluctuating pressure signals induced by vortex cavitation werepicked up by a micro-transducer.Cavitation erosion tests were just done at the velocity of13.5m/s.The aim of this work is to investigate the relation between cavitation inception andflow structure and to explore the dependence of cavitation damage on cavitation intensity.Thecavitation intensity which is defined as the power density per unit time can be regarded as the in-put of the test system.The intensity of cavitation damage is supposed to be the consumed powerdensity per unit time and considered as the output of the system of test,The ratio of the output tothe input is as the efficiency of the test system.The test results also show that the output is verysmall in quantity as compared with the input.

A STUDY ON CAVITATION AND CAVITATION DAMAGE IN A CAVITATION TUNNEL