Interaction of two cavitation bubbles in a tube and its effects on heat transfer

When two cavitation bubbles exist in a confined space, the interaction between the bubbles significantly affects the characteristics of bubble dynamic behaviors. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) model is established to study the growth and collapse of two cavitation bubbles in a heated tube and its effects on heat transfer. The liquid and gas phases throughout the calculation domain are solved by a set of Navier-Stokes equations. It is assumed that the gas inside the bubble is compressible vapor, and the surrounding liquid is incompressible water. The mass transfer between two phases is ignored. The calculated bubble profiles were compared to the available experimental data, and a good agreement has been achieved. Then, the relationship among the bubble motion, flow field and pressure distributions was analyzed. On this basis, the effects of bubble interaction on the heat transfer between the wall surface and sounding liquid were discussed. It is found that heat transfer in the centre wall region is enhanced owing to the vortex flow and micro-jet induced by the bubble contraction and collapse. In contrast, the highest surface temperature appears in the surrounding region, which is mainly attributed to the thermal resistance induced by the bubble. The present study is helpful to understand the heat transfer phenomenon with cavitation in the liquid.