Giacomo Falcucci, Stefano Ubertini and Sauro Succi

University of Rome, Italy.

 

Abstract

In this talk, direct numerical evidence of flow-induced incipient cavitation is presented through Lattice Boltzmann simulations of multiphase flows with a non-ideal thermodynamic equation of state. Cavitation emerges spontaneously as a result of the underlying non-ideal interactions, with no need of any modeling criteria based on the fluid variables, such as pressure or stress tensor.

The onset of cavitation is well captured by Joseph’s minimum tension criteria, complemented with surface tension corrections, as proposed by Brennen. The simulations also show that the Cavitation Number proves to be a poor predictor of the onset of cavitation.

Finally, strong dependence of the bubble morphology on the surface tension is also highlighted.