Experimental study on unsteady cloud cavity behaviour and induced pressure fluctuation in a convergent-divergent channel using simultaneous measurement technique

To address the unsteady cavity behaviour and induced pressure fluctuation in cloud cavitating flow, cavitation images and pressure fluctuation signals are simultaneously acquired by high speed visualization system and 4 piezo-electric transducers in a convergent-divergent channel. The cavitation images are processed by using a home-developed software to obtain the time evolutions of global cavity area. Frequency analysis is conducted for both global cavity area and pressure signal. Bubble dynamics is introduced to analyze the correlation between pressure fluctuation in the downstream and global cavity behaviour. Two conclusions are achieved: First, in cloud cavitating flow, the time evolution of both the cavity behaviour and pressure fluctuation are quasi-periodic, one quasi-period can be divided into three main stages: growth of attached cavity, shedding of attached cavity, coalescence and collapse of detached cavity. Second, the dominant frequency of global cavity area and pressure fluctuation on 4 transducers are the same, it's 20Hz in this study. Third, it's found that during the stage of growth of attached cavity and growth, collapse of detached cavity, the correlation between global cavity area and induced pressure in the downstream is similar with that of a single bubble; while, such correlation is not clear when several travelling cavities exist at the same time.