Modeling Cavitating Venturi Flows

Simulations of various venturi orie ce cavitating e ows were performed using a homogeneous e ow model. The dynamics of a bubble response per the Rayleigh ‐Plesset equation are cast into constitutive equation for the density for the pseudoe uid, and the turbulence is approximated by the ki! turbulence model. The computed results show that cavitation develops at the throat and its downstream region grows and collapses in a quasi-periodic fashion. The size of the cavity grows as the cavitation number for the e ow is reduced. The mass e ow rate through the cavitating venturi oscillates periodically essentially in phase with the vapor cloud in the diffuser. Venturi e ow rate, oscillation frequency,and cavitationextentarecharacterized fora widerangeof conditionsandarecompared against experimental data. Results indicate that computations are accurate to within a few percent in e ow rate for the venturis modeled in the project.