Acosta 2000

Chapter 2
by UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM LIBRARY - INFORMATION SERVICES on 03/21/15. For personal use only.
Cavitation and Cavitation

Types
Cavitation of Hydraulic Machinery Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
A.J. Acosta
2.1 Cavitation Phenomenon

2.1.1 Cavitation
The word cavity is derived from Latin and it has the meaning of a hollow
or empty place within a solid1. In the technical literature the word "cavita
tion" has come to have several related meanings; for example, the formation
of voids in a solid due to stress in one. The term is also used for the su
personic expansion of a gas into a vacuum. In engineering concerned with
applications to naval hydrodynamics and hydraulic machinery, the term cav
itation refers to the formation of voids, hollows, or simply "cavities" within
a liquid medium. The cavities in each of these cases are filled with a gaseous
phase; this phase may consist of a mixture of the vapour of the original
liquid medium, a gaseous phase of a non-condensible component dissolved
in the liquid, or perhaps a different gaseous phase injected or entrained into
the cavity either deliberately or by the action of the flow. For example, a
marine propeller or lifting hydrofoil operating near the free surface of the
ocean may entrain air from the surface into the low-pressure regions of the
foil forming large cavities which have a severe effect on the performance of
the lifting surface. The propeller is then often said to "cavitate". In this
case the contents of the cavity are principally that of the surrounding air;
some writers prefer to use the term "ventilation" for this term (see Acosta,
'Oxford Compact Unabridged Dictionary, 1971.
9
10 Cavitation
1973) or "artificial" cavitation. Indeed, the deliberate introduction of ven

tilating air to cause cavities is a well-known means of modifying the lift on
foils/propellers and has been used for that purpose.
2.1.2 Hydrodynamic Cavitation

But it is not necessary to have a neighbouring free surface or artificial means
to provide the contents of these cavities in the liquid; that can be done from
the liquid medium itself by vaporisation. Indeed, this is the usually under
stood meaning of the term "cavitation" in a hydraulic machine; namely, the

cavitation results from the liquid being subjected to pressures less than the
vapour pressure of the liquid through the action of the fluid flow. That is
to say, the pressure change is brought about by the Bernoulli effect and
is therefore a dynamic process. The phase change that results provides the
vapour of the liquid together with that of any other dissolved component.
There are further distinctions to be made, however, depending upon the
relative importance of the dissolved gas content. It may be recalled that a
thermodynamic system consisting of a pure liquid and a dissolved noncon-
densible gas (that is the most common situation in hydraulic machines and
for marine applications) may have an equilibrium composition at a given
temperature proportional to the partial pressure of the non-condensible gas.
(This relationship is known as Henry's Law.) It follows that if the mixture
total pressure at a given temperature and composition is less than equilib
rium one, the dissolved gas phase will come out of solution, thereby forming
a "cavity" or gaseous phase. This equilibrium pressure at which the gas
phase appears is called the "bubble point". Plainly, if the liquid pressure is
less than the bubble point, "cavitation" from this source can occur; if the
pressure is less than the vapour pressure of the pure liquid, both components,
gas and vapour of the liquid, can appear within the cavity 2 .
Although these effects are well-known, they can and do cause difficulty
and uncertainty in the interpretation of specific cavitation phenomena, as
will be mentioned subsequently. Professor J.W. Holl, in his influential article
(Holl, 1969) clearly distinguishes between the cavitation phenomena arising
from situations where the cavity contents are primarily non-condensible gas
on the one hand and condensible vapour on the other (it is assumed that
2
More complex multi-component systems are common in petro-chemical pumping ap
plications. Even sea water is different than the tap water commonly used in test facilities
and, as pointed out by Edstrand (1984), the presence of CO2 in sea water can affect the
cavitation occurrence and types expected from model tests.
Cavitation and Cavitation Types 11
ventilation or artificial cavitation is ruled out). The first of these he terms

"gaseous cavitation" and the second "vaporous cavitation." Both occur in
technically important flows and, as will be seen, there are important physical
consequences of these two types.
Thus far in this section we have described one physical basis for the
formation of a gaseous/vaporous phase in a liquid by dynamic action of the
fluid flow. It is clear that at a given system pressure the liquid temperature
could equally well be raised to form gaseous evolution of dissolved non-
condensibles as well as "boiling" of the pure liquid component. Indeed, there
are many close similarities to boiling and vaporous cavitation occurring in

"bubbly" flows for they are in essence the same phenomenon. But there
are differences, too, because in the fluid flow typical of hydraulic machines,
and hydrodynamics in general are the additional features of a complicated,
three-dimensional, unsteady viscous flow which has a profound effect upon
the physical form the cavitation "cavities" take. We discuss these various
forms and types, some of their effects, and mechanics of cavitation inception
in the next section.
2.2 Types of Cavitation

2.2.1 Cavitation Index
The cavitation index used herein and throughout the field is the dimension-
less pressure coefficient called the cavitation number
a = (Poo-Pv)/(pU20O/2) (2.1)
where p^ is the static reference pressure of the fluid, pv, the equilibrium
vapour pressure of the pure liquid medium, p the fluid density and C/oo the
reference speed. In hydraulic machinery applications, I / ^ is the inlet rela
tive velocity; sometimes the inlet total pressure pa (at the site of cavitation)
is used and the difference (pti - pv) is called the net positive suction pres
sure, NPSP. For vaporous cavitation to occur p m j„ < pv where p m j n is the
minimum pressure in the fluid. The value of Eq. 2.1 when the onset or in
ception of cavitation occurs is called cavitation inception index and denoted
0{. Sometimes the pressure is known (or computed) within the flow or on
the wetted surface and made dimensionless in coefficient form as
Cp = ( p - P o c ) / ( p ^ / 2 ) (2.2)
12 Cavitation
and clearly then

—
0~i < Cp min
is a condition for vaporous cavitation inception. As Holl (1969) shows, if

Oi > —Op min, then gaseous cavitation occurs by diffusion of dissolved gas.
For most technical applications the actual cavitation number is less than
the inception value and less than —Cp m j n although this may not be known.
2.2.2 Scale Effects and Cavitation Types

In most applications in hydraulic machinery similarity of operation follows

from the affinity laws for liquid turbomachines and it follows that the cavi
tation behaviour of geometrically similar turbomachines would be expected
to depend only on the cavitation number. When this does not happen, there
is said to be a "scale effect". Cavitation is a complicated physical process
involving a phase change with heat and mass transfer and the extent and
development of the cavitation in a machine depends in addition upon the
concentration of the cavitation nuclei within the fluid itself. Holl and Billet
(Morgan and Parkin, 1979, p.12) classify these scale effects into two types.
Because these effects do cause important differences in the type and appear
ance of cavitation, we list them here before discussing the range of cavitation
types (paraphrased).
• T y p e 1 These effects change the external flow field by changes in the

Reynolds number, Fronde number, or geometric effects such as surface
roughness and includes turbulent pressure fluctuations.
• T y p e 2 These effects change the physical processes governing the

phase change of the liquid and include the time scale, heat and mass
transfer, surface tension, concentration of cavitation nuclei.
These are useful distinctions because, as they mention, Type 1 affects

the value of Cp m j„ whereas Type 2 effects may locally alter growth rates of
microbubbles and cavities and the vapour pressure, pv, of the pure liquid
medium. This latter effect is called the "thermodynamic" effect and it is
often important in the pumping of liquids when the density ratio of the liquid
and vapour states is not great as it is for cold water, for example, in which
this effect is negligible. With this as a background and drawing on similar
tabulations (Acosta and Parkin, 1980), we tabulate forms of cavitation in
Table 2.1 occurring at and below inception in a wide variety of situations. All
of these various types of cavitation can occur on a pump or turbine. Often
Item Type Description

1 Travelling bubble Spheroidal bubbles travel over the sur
face at near free-stream speed
2 Sheet cavitation A somewhat clear sheet from near
the nose of hydrofoils or axisymmetric

bodies
3 Super cavitation Similar to (2), a "fully developed" cavity
usually longer than the chord
4 Bubble ring A highly intermittent form in a ring near
the body surface - in a separated region

5 Band cavitation Consists of many small bubbles forming
a region of macroscopic cavitation
6 Fixed patch cavitation An attached form of cavitation often
wedge shaped starting near Cp m j„
7 Travelling patch cavitation Similar to the above but moves down
stream, gradually merging with travel
ling bubble forms
8 Spot cavitation Similar to patch cavitation - usually
more like a string. Often due to local
roughness
9 Cloud cavitation A collection of cavitating bubbles, of
ten seen in wakes of bluff bodies, down
stream of unsteady collapsing sheet cav
ities on propellers or hydrofoils. Also in
shear flows and jets
10 Tip vortex cavitation Most clearly seen on propeller or hydro
foil tips; highly rotational flow. Also
occurs in tip clearance or gap flows in
turbomachines, the hub of propellers or
turbines at off-design
11 Vortical cavitation A reference to the cavitation seen in the
wakes of bluff bodies, both primary and
secondary (streamwise) cavitation is of
ten seen. Also downstream of unsteady
collapsing sheet cavities on partially cav
itating foils
12 Shear flow cavitation Within the wall shear layer, free shear
layers of jets
Table 2.1: Types of cavitation

14 Cavitation
in the pump literature these several types are lumped together into simply
"blade surface" cavitation for items 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 because it is not often
easy to observe these flows in machines. Cloud cavitation can take place in
the jet-like flows through wearing rings and in the mixing region with the
reverse flow and the oncoming meridional velocity as described by Stoffel and
Ludwig (1990). If a pump is operated far off-design, say at 25 percent design
flow rate, then strong reverse flows occur both at inlet and discharge and
then a severe cavitation environment may exist at the inlet with cavitation
and cavitation damage then occurring on the normal pressure surface of the
vane. Based on the observations of Giilich (1989), it is probable that an

intermittent collapsing cloud cavity is responsible for this damage.
These various kinds of cavitation, their description, origin and connection
to the underlying viscous fluid flow, population of micro-bubbles, and two-
phase flow mechanics has been studied intensively by the major hydraulic
and hydrodynamic laboratories of the world for the last twenty years and
this effort continues today with unabated effort. There have been several
conferences which highlight the many reasons leading to the long catalog
of Table 2.1. Among these may be mentioned the various International
Symposia in the References from which these various types of cavitation are
drawn. Of these various sources the review by Rood (pp. 1-22, Morgan and
Parkin, 1989) is most helpful, particularly for those in the hydrodynamics
field concerned with cavitation inception and the less available International
Towing Tank Conferences (Huang, 1990).
Figure 2.1: Cavitation on a "Schiebe" body having Cp m ; n = 0.75; the same

body of 50.8 mm diameter is shown in two different water tunnels showing
travelling bubble cavitation in one case a = 0.46 and a fixed "patch" of
cavitation in the other a = 0.6 (Gates and Billet, 1980 [2.29])
l.Rome 2. AEW 3. Delft

4. NPL 5. Cal. Tech. 6. Cal. Tech.
7. SSPA 8. SSPA 9. SSPA
Figure 2.2: Different forms of cavitation on a smooth body with a laminar

separation (Johnsson, 1969 [2.41])
We mention again the two types of effects causing a scale effect; the first
of these is a real fluid, that is, a viscous effect. It is now realized in the
cavitation community, somewhat belatedly, that flows common in test lab
oratories may have a laminar separation present. The bubble ring, band,
and sheet cavitation forms all occur within a laminar separation. Some bod
ies do not have a laminar separation; an excellent example of one having
a deep minimum pressure coefficient and still no separation is the so-called
" Schiebe" body, named for Frank Schiebe, who was the first to use these par
ticular half-bodies for research (Schiebe, 1972). Figure 2.1 shows cavitation
on such a body in two different facilities. One has travelling bubble cavita
tion, the other an attached fixed patch; many intermediate forms can exist.
On the other hand, Fig. 2.2 shows the well-known ITTC standard head form
16 Cavitation
Bubble-ring cavitation on the hemisherical nose Band cavitation on the hemispherical nose
a =0.626. Voo= 18.3mps, a=9.5ppm a=0.610, Vo<pl8.3mps, a=9.2 ppm
Figure 2.3: Bubble ring (left) and band cavitation (right) on the hemisphere
body (Holl and Carroll, 1979 'Observations of the Various Types of Limited
Cavitation on Axisymmetric Bodies', Intl. Symp. on Cavitation Inception,
ASME, pp.87-101).
which is (now) known to have a laminar separation for the test conditions
of Johnsson's round-robin tests. There are clear and important differences
between the two types of bodies and the kinds of cavitation revealed. The
hemispherical head form, possibly the most tested body in hydrodynamics,
also contains a laminar separation and Fig. 2.3 shows the ring/band kind
of cavitation there. These important viscous effects were first pointed out
by Arakeri et al. (1973) and it then became clear that these viscous effects
could be manipulated by boundary layer excitation through polymer injec
tion, trips/roughness. More importantly, it may be that the prototype on
a large scale may not have a laminar separation while the laboratory scale
might. Curiously no travelling bubble cavitation was seen by Arakeri or Holl
in their work on the hemisphere body but in other experiments on the ITTC
headform Kodama et al. (Morgan and Parkin, 1979) was able to observe
them by supplying additional nuclei to the test fluid even for conditions far
beyond inception when a developed or sheet cavity had formed.
The presence of laminar separation and laminar transition is a Type

1 or external influence on the flow. Indeed, boundary layer stimulation
by roughness elements may be used to preclude some features of this scale
effect (Huang in Morgan and Parkin, 1984) and this technique has also been
applied with apparent success to propeller blade leading edges, (Kuiper,

1979; Huang and Shaw, 1986).
The foregoing discussion has originated largely from considerations near
inception (except for Fig. 2.4). As the cavitation index is decreased at
Sheet cavity on n iC body with no added nuclei U00=6.8 m/s, a =0.60
Bubble cavities on ITTC body with added nuclei U 00 =6.8m/s, a =0.60
Figure 2.4: The same body as in Fig. 2.2 with different nuclei concentra
tion (Kodama et al, 1979 'The Effect of Nuclei on the Inception of Bubble
and Sheet Cavitation on Axisymmetric Bodies', Intl. Symp. on Cavitation
Inception, ASME, pp.75-78).
constant speed from inception the extent of cavitation in all cases increases.
Items 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 of Table 2.1 are all attached and limited forms of cavi-
18 Cavitation
tation according to Holl (1969). And with continued decrease in cavitation

number, these regions expand from a bubbly, foamy region to form an at
tached sheet cavity, the contents of which are largely vapour and dissolved
gas, however, the terminus of this region is highly unsteady on all bodies.
This condition prevails until the cavity becomes quite long; in the case of half
bodies or hydrofoils, the cavity may become longer than the body. There
then results a clear sheet cavity and this was labeled "supercavitation" by
Marshall Tulin many years ago. This sequence of events is amply illustrated
in the monograph by Knapp et al. and because the flow except at the cavity
terminus approaches that of a potential flow has led to extensive mathemat

ical and numerical analysis. See, for example, the review by Wu (1973), and
Figure 2.5: An attached cavity formed on the Schiebe head form made in
acrylic resin: the cavitation index is a = 0.32 (Ceccio and Brennen, 1990a
[2.16]).
Note the different appearances of the cavitation seen in Fig. 2.1 on the same
body.
the papers by Murai (1968) and Puruya (1975) as samples of this extensive
subject.
The sequence of events is not so clearly understood when more extensive
cavitation is developed from the travelling bubble inception form. In that
situation, with a decrease in the cavitation index, more bubbles form which
tend to cover the surface of the test body until a condition is reached when
an attached cavity or a sheet is formed on the body. This process occurs
even on surfaces not having a laminar separation. This process was clearly
observed on the non-separating Schiebe body by Gates et al. (1976) and
more recently by Ceccio and Brennen (1990a) shown in Fig. 2.5. Implicit in
the formation of an attached sheet cavity is an upstream laminar separation
(Arakeri, 1975; Franc and Michel, 1985); that is, the formation of cavitation
surface itself requires the viscous layer upstream itself to separate. It would
seem then that the presence of the many travelling bubbles give rise for
the conditions of a laminar separation to occur on the body which would
otherwise not have the separation. This supposition remains to be shown,
however.
■ KCAO'OftM SUR/ACC
-£ Htkorottu suffice
9»0 Q0
V- KOUCM V suHMCt
- 5 mm
(a)
Figure 2.6: Schematic diagram of a cavitating bubble evolution (a) the non-
separating Schiebe body, and (b) from the ITTC head form of Fig. 2.2
(Ceccio and Brennen, 1990b [2.17])
The process of travelling bubble cavitation even when the bubbles are
far apart, as first photographed by Knapp, have been recently studied ex
perimentally again by Ceccio and Brennen (1990b) who show by systematic
20 Cavitation
photography that the growth and collapse history of individual bubble cavi
tation is quite different depending on whether or not the body has a laminar
separation. In both cases the bubble is very non-spherical as shown in Figs.
2.6a,b; the presence or absence of a separation has an important effect upon
the process of cavitation re-bound and as a consequence upon the noise signa
ture of the collapse. It is particularly interesting that the trailing streamers
seen in Fig. 2.6b, which have been widely seen before, are now shown to
occur in the pressure of a laminar separation underneath the cavitating flow.
The presence of cloud cavitation has already been mentioned as a promi
nent feature near the terminus of a sheet cavity or in the wake of a recircu-
Figure 2.7: Sequence of photographs showing progressive states of cavita

tion on an NACA 64-309 oscillating three-dimensional hydrofoil. The foil
is oscillating 2° about a 7° mean angle of attack at a reduced frequency,
k — wc/2U, of 0.88 and cavitation number of 0.5. The sequence shows a
leading edge cavitation cavity forming at a 9° angle of attack (top left).
Photographs taken in 0.5° increments show cavitation beginning as travel
ling bubbles progressing to a leading edge sheet cavity and then collapsing as
an intense cloud cavitation as the foil oscillates to 7° angle of attack (bottom
ring). The foil has an aspect ratio of two and 15 cm chord (Hart et al, 1990
[2.34])
lating shear flow and it is as a consequence an important feature in many

pumps and propellers. Van der Muelen et al. (1990) have shown that the
collapse of these cavities can be very energetic and suggests this is a source
of propeller cavitation erosion. The intensity of this process is attributed
to vorticity being perpendicular to the cavity (i.e., in the spanwise direc

tion). This is the case shown in the cloud collapse shown on the hydrofoil
of Fig. 2.7; the sheet cavity (paraphrasing van der Muelen) on a propeller
is however normally three-dimensional and the sheet cavity terminus has a
pronounced sweep back which streams smoothly off into a tip vortex and an
intense cloud cavity collapse is avoided. The unsteady cavitating flow past
hydrofoils continues to be a matter of great concern (e.g. Narasaka et al.,
1990) and the models of these flows based on a bubble "cloud" concept have
attracted much attention. Recent numerical studies (Kubota, 1988) show
remarkable similarity to experiments. The idea of a cloud cavity as a means
of greatly simplifying hydrodynamic interactions had already attracted con
siderable attention (Chahine (1982), d'Agostino and Brennen (1983)) and
further development of this approach may be expected.
Figure 2.8: Tip vortex cavitation in an axial flow pump with a rounded blade
tip (right) and a squared-off one (left). (Caltech photo)
22 Cavitation
A tip vortex flow and tip vortex cavitation is often a highly visible and
even spectacular feature of propellers and foils of finite aspect ratio. The
bound vorticity of the foil shed into the flow organises itself into a rolled
up vortex core forming low pressures in which cavitation can begin. The
flow can be exceedingly complex (see the review by Rood, 1989), is not
necessarily steady, and depends sensitively on viscous properties of the flow
as well as the dissolved and free gas content. It is thought that inception
can be either vaporous or gaseous depending upon the length of time of
exposure to cavitating conditions. Pumps and hydraulic machines in general
may experience tip vortex cavitation in the tip clearance space of unshrouded
machines as shown in Fig. 2.8 or in the leakage shear flow of the wear rings of
shrouded impellers as sketched in Fig. 2.9. In his survey paper Grein (1978)
Figure 2.9: Location of cavitation in a pump inlet (Stoffel and Ludwig, 1990
[2.72])
shows photographs of the cavitation development in the eye of a shrouded

centrifugal pump impeller. At inception, attached forms of cavitation at the
blade leading edge are seen which develop into a glassy sheet cavity and on
the shroud surface travelling bubble cavitation is seen as well as in the wear
ring leakage flow; these latter forms appear to be "cloud" cavities at lower
pressures.
The term vortical cavitation is used to designate the strongly rotational

flow found downstream of bluff bodies, behind backward facing steps in slots
(Cimbala and Billet, 1989). In all these cases, the cavitation index at incep
tion is significantly greater than the time averaged or instantaneous value of
—Cp min on the surface of the body. The implication is that fluctuating pres
sures within the fluid because of the unsteady flow give rise to the cavitation.
But it is not usually known if the cavitation in these regions is gaseous or
vaporous because it is exceedingly difficult to measure fluctuating pressures
within the flow field. One method to do (Ooi et al., 1983) uses the volume of
initially uniform microbubbles in a turbulent non-cavitating flow as a mea

sure of local pressure. Based on ideas from such measurements, Cimbala and
Billet (1989) suggest that the slot cavitation is gaseous because the pressure
fluctuations are sufficient to cause air diffusion (i.e., the transient pressures
are below the bubble point) but are not strong enough to force vaporous
cavitation.
The last item of Table 2.1, although similar in respects to number 11,
is characterised by the absence of a body scale length; the relevant lengths
are those characterising the spatial and temporal structure shear layer itself.
These flows are almost exclusively turbulent and are unlike flows around
bodies; cavitation is driven by the character of these mixing regions (the
Type one effects) and the population of the cavitation nuclei available to
react to the flow. Such flows have been extensively studied by Arndt (1969,
1981).
In closing this section it should be mentioned that, although some of
the main ideas of cavitation types have been described here, there is not
necessarily a universal acceptance of these concepts. Also, attention has,
been directed towards the "onset" or inception of cavitation rather than its
"disappearance" or desinent condition. Both quantities are important and,
as described by Holl (1969) and even more so by Keller (1979), the liquid en
vironment and the test procedure can significantly influence inception (and
desinent) results. This is in part because, as Keller points out, the popu
lation of nuclei within recirculating test facilities is not constant with time.
And, in addition, as is increasingly recognised (e.g. Li et al., (1986)), cav
itation is a stochastic process. Many of these kinds of considerations until
recently have been largely overlooked in the hydraulic industry in the test
ing of pumps and turbines for performance and cavitation endurance. But
with the increasing emphasis on long life and reliable operation of pumps for
power plants and industrial applications, they are now in the mainstream of
the industry (Giilich (1989), Gopalakrishnan (1985), Avellan et al. (1986)).
24 Cavitation
2.3 Cavitation Effects

Knapp (1952) states that "Cavitation is one hydraulic phenomenon in which
the effects are predominantly undesirable and often destructive". Despite
the few constructive uses that can be made of cavitation in the design of
special self-regulating pumps (as pointed out by him) or its use in cleaning
or cutting devices, most hydraulic engineers today would agree with Prof.
Knapp's early observation and it is generally recognised that cavitation ad
versely changes the performance of hydraulic equipment, may result in an
unsteady flow causing noise, mechanical vibration, internal flow surging and
material damage termed cavitation "erosion". Indeed, this erosion is a se
vere problem in all hydraulic equipment in hydropower plants, thermal power
plants, industrial pumps and it has been with us from the first applications
of ship propulsion by propellers (Knapp et al., 1979) and it continues so to
the present day in hydraulic machines (Chapter 6 to follow). More extensive
recent reviews describing the effects of cavitation in hydraulic machinery and
structures (Arndt, 1981; Arndt and Webb, 1985) are recommended reading.
2.3.1 General Phenomena
As the cavitation index is decreased from inception the extent of cavitation

increases. On lifting surfaces such as a hydrofoil the increasing extent of
cavitation alters the lift coefficient and generally increases the drag. If the
cavitation is a sheet cavity starting near the leading edge, the lift coefficient
may at first rise with increasing length of the cavity and then decrease to
a much lower value when the cavity becomes longer than the foil; several
examples are shown in Fig. 2.10. Generally, the cavitating flow is not steady
and typically when the sheet cavity becomes about 1/3 to 1/2 chord length
oscillations develop in which the entire cavity or perhaps only portions of
the cavity grow and collapse nearly periodically (Murai and Itoh, 1985) with
resulting fluctuations in lift force, that can be an appreciable fraction of the
average lift depending upon the foil type. These force fluctuations cease
when the cavity is significantly longer than the chord. The frequency of
the fluctuations is "high' just after inception and decrease with increasing
cavity length. The dimensionless reduced frequency k = u>c/U where w is
the angular frequency, c the chord and U the free stream velocity may range
from 5 for the high frequencies to about 0.1 for the low but there may be a
broad band of frequencies (Murai and Itoh loc cit).
r— 1
O-2.07S
IK
^~^v
—r
>6
1
'
A, i
1
o-1.2*9
« I
90 ' r
<s-0M6
( M
J il 100
12)
~\—^_i_
MO ».«
Crr^t
nvac
1.0 1.6
«►
13 1J
-*•
5.4
OJM
Hz CAVITATION INDEX, a
Figure 2.10: The effect of cavitation on lift and drag of a foil showing un
steady effect on lift and the frequency of these effects (Murai and Itoh, 1985
[2.61])
2.3.2 Influences on Machine Performance

Very similar processes can occur within a pump. That is, there is a per
formance change of head coefficient and efficiency as shown in Fig. 2.11 on
a medium specific speed pump, Ns ~ 0.75 somewhat similar to that of a
hydrofoil3. It may be seen there that a small "loss" of performance due to
cavitation is acceptable. The amount of this loss varies from 1 percent to
3 percent and depends upon the expected life due to cavitation erosion. It
is typical that lower cavitation indices result for lower flow coefficients for
centrifugal impellers; the sharp decline of performance seen in Fig. 2.11 is
termed cavitation "breakdown" and it is due to the profound effect of the
large extent of cavitation in the impeller inlet and it tracks to a great degree
the performance of the hydrofoils shown in Fig. 2.10. Some applications
3
Here N, = QQi/2/(Apt/p)3/4 where Q is the angular speed in rads/s, Ap ( the total
pressure rise, p the density, Q the volumetric flow rate all in consistent units.
26 Cavitation
-
—r — I — T 1 F—|-—•" ~r~ — 1 — 1 "
—"- ♦,-OJS
\
0.43
" ■ * * . ,
0.41 -
I ACCVTAIU — <
1 KXTOCMANCE
LOSS •
^»
■_ _ L 1_ 1 1 1 1 ' l , . 1 .
0 OJ 1.0 !>
OvU»6oo Index Btted on Inlet Relative Velocity, a

Figure 2.11: Cavitation performance of an efficient centrifugal pump at con

stant inlet flow coefficient vs the cavitation index based on the inlet relative
velocity. The flow coefficient, <f>\, is the ratio of inlet axial velocity to inlet tip
speed U\ (adapted from Blom, C , 1950 'Development of Hydraulic Design
for the Grand Coulee Pumps', Tran. ASME, Vol. 72, p. 53).
may require operation with significantly lower values of cavitation index

than those of Fig. 2.11, even at the same specific speed. This may be ac
complished if the inlet portions of the pump are provided with lightly loaded
hydrofoil cascade sections which may be an integral part of the impeller or a
separate portion attached to the main impeller, usually called an " inducer".
The sole function of the inducer is to provide the total pressure rise needed
to make the main portion of the impeller operate satisfactorily; that is, the
inducer dimensionless pressure rise should just about equal 4 the inlet cavi
tation index needed for acceptable operation of the main impeller. Figure
2.12 shows the cavitation performance of a typical inducer pump (Kamijyo,
1975); the cavitation performance of a pump impeller (such as that in Fig.
2.11) fitted with an inducer upstream of the impeller on the same shaft and
with no intervening stationary blading is similar to that of the inducer alone
at the design point of the two units and total pressure rise is essentially the
same as that of the original pump impeller. Such inducer pumps have been
intensively studied around the world (e.g. Kamijyo et al., 1975; Velensek,
1983; Wood and Whippen, 1969; Janigro and Ferrini, 1973; Anton, 1975;
Takamatsu et al., 1980) to mention only a few. With tip blade angles rang-
4
If both are based on the same reference dynamic pressure.
N« 10.000 tyre
^•aora
0.106
8-H 0.117
■
*" OOJI-
t 020
OJOJ 010 0.1)
CAVITATION INDEX, o » ( p r pY) /pU? / 2
Figure 2.12: Cavitation performance of a conical inducer pump (Kamijyo et

al, 1975 [2.42]).
There are three blades, inlet tip angle = 7.5°, outlet hub ratio= 0.29 and
the tip solidity is 2.5.
ing from 6° to 15°, solidities 5 of 1.5 to about 3, values of the cavitation index
as low as 0.02 are readily achieved in fluids such as water and liquid oxygen.
When the fluid state becomes relatively nearer the critical point an addi
tional "thermodynamic" effect appears due to the adiabatic evaporation of
liquid to fill the vapour cavities causing a well-known depression of the local
vapour pressure and operation at a lower value ofCT,than would otherwise
be the case. This is a Type 2 similarity effect (Holl, 1969); see Arndt (1981)
for more detail.
These more extreme suction conditions frequently required for operation
of a pump are far removed inception itself. The ratio of the cavitation index
from inception to that of breakdown for medium specific pumps (0.55 <
Ns < 1.4) ranges from a low of 2.5 to over 10 (McNulty and Pearsall, 1979).
The conditions near inception are still of intrinsic interest, however, and we
shall return to this point in the next section.
The unsteady cavitation oscillations seen on individual hydrofoils also
occur within complete pumps and gives rise to unsteady pump discharge
and suction pressures (Murai and Itoh, 1985) as well as cavitation noise,
an example of which is shown in Fig. 2.13 for an inducer pump. It is now
' R a t i o of developed blade length to spacing in the peripheral direction.

28 Cavitation
2*0 ~\ r
£
220 -O 0 O-
200 J i I I L
110 1 1 1 1 -i r »' ■
id
20- 40KH*
40- 60KHz
{<* IOO - 60- 80KHz
S0-120KHz
ST MI- ~
K
fr-"*-!**-' o -
1
70 -
1" -
1
<>§ eo
30 i
K) 20 30 40
NPSH IN FEET OF WATER
Figure 2.13: Variation of acoustic output at various frequency bands and the
total developed head vs Net Positive Suction Head for a 5 in inducer pump
rotating at 3600 rpm; the flow is 600 gpm (U.S.) (adapted from Gopalakr-
ishnan, 1985 [2.31])
generally agreed that cavitation noise, readily detected for hydrofoils, can
be separated from the machinery noise of cavitating pumps and used as a
diagnostic test for the presence of cavitation (Gulich, 1989; McNulty and
Pearsall, 1979) and even erosion (van der Muelen, 1986).
2.3.3 System Stability

A further and most important feature of the cavitating flow in a hydraulic
machine, pump or turbine is the possibility of system stability; system os
cillations associated with such machines have had a long history and are
discussed at length in Chapter 7. In these preliminary remarks it is per

haps only important to note that the unsteady surging oscillations reported
in the literature for many inducer pumps is an interactive phenomenon of
the pump (or turbine) itself, the attached hydraulic system and of course
any associated control system. It was realized early on that analysis of this
dynamic phenomenon required a dynamic representation of a cavitating hy
draulic machine. It should be recalled that the cavitating performance tests
of Figs. 2.11, 2.12 are for steady inlet pressure, and constant rotative speed
and flow rate (these may be difficult to realize in some situations), and that
these conditions do not prevail when system oscillations do occur. This led
many workers in the 1960s to represent the dynamic perturbations of pump,
for example, about its average operating point in the following form
( Z ) -I* ( Z ) ■ ("'
Here Ap represents the fluctuating dimensionless total pressure increase, m?
the fluctuating discharge flow coefficient, p, the fluctuating inlet cavitation
number and M, the fluctuating inlet flow coefficient. All these fluctuations
are supposed to be small compared to average quantities. The term [Z] is
called the transfer matrix whose coefficients are complex in time and are
functions of a reduced frequency (e.g. k = w/fi) where w is the oscillation
frequency and ft, is the shaft rotational speed as before. (Additional terms
are needed if the shaft speed is not constant.) Certain of the terms of [Z] may
be estimated if k « 1, that is, the oscillations are quasi-steady, from nor
mal steady pump performance data (see Sack and Nottage, 1965 for one such
example). Measurements of all four (complex) components of [Z] were made
at Caltech about 1975 (see the summary paper of Brennen, 1978) and it was
found that all four complex terms could be determined; they were found to
be a function of reduced frequency and to be dependent upon the cavitation
index. In other respects they follow normal pump similarity laws. In ad
dition, for the more extensive cavitation found in inducer pumps, Brennen
and Braisted (1980) found that the cavitating flow pump could put energy
into the oscillations, that is, the pump became an "active" element rather
than a "passive", consisting of capacitive, resistive and inertance lumped
parameter elements as earlier works. More recent developments at Sulzer
Bros, with a different experimental approach (Stirnemann et al., 1987) have
made similar dynamic measurements on a centrifugal pump with Ns ~ 0.6
typical of a boiler feed pump stage. They find more recently (Bolleter et
30 Cavitation
al., 1990) that in the cavitation domain typical of these pumps (less than
3 percent head loss), that the very simple passive representation mentioned
above was sufficient in analysing the acoustics of hydraulic systems and, in
effect, revert to earlier lumped-parameter estimates. It may be mentioned,
anticipating the results of Chapter 7, that these quasi-steady lumped param

eter terms have the following physical interpretations: The real part of Zne
corresponds to the slope of the standard cavitation performance curve (Fig.
2.11), and the real part of Z12 corresponds to the slope of the normal pump
characteristic curve. The effects of inertia due to liquid oscillation through
the pump correspond to the imaginary part of Z12. The outlet and inlet mass
flow rates can differ if the effective density within the pump changes with
time; this includes both the effect of the volume of the cavitation formed
as a function of pressure as well as the liquid compressibility and elasticity
of the housing. Thus the term Z21; and finally the angle of attack on the
blade inlet edges can change the cavity volume and thereby one is led to
the term Z22. These terms are the focus of the work reported by Brennen
(loc cit) and more recently by Nishiyama (Nishiyama and Nishiyama, 1980).
In essence, Bolleter's observation is that for large hydraulic systems which
dominate the dynamics, and for a "small" amount of cavitation a cavitating
pump is "passive"; quasi-steady measurements from the pump characteris
tic are sufficient for real Z\2, the liquid compressibility is nearly sufficient
for Z21, Z\\ and Z22 may be neglected and a geometric estimate of liquid
inertia is sufficient for imaginary Z\2- This is not the case, however, for the
cavitating behaviour of inducer pumps where all four terms of the transfer
matrix must be evaluated.
2.4 Cavitation Nucleation and Inception

2.4.1 Inception
The variability of the cavitation inception index is readily imagined with
the different types of cavitation exhibited on one body such as the ITTC
test body of Fig. 2.2. Inception indices for this body are shown in Fig.
2.14 and they all reveal a significant scale effect (i.e. a + Cp min 7^ 0). Many
similar reports are given in Arndt's (1981) review for related bodies (e.g. the
hemisphere body) and for non separating bodies (e.g. Fig. 2.1, see also very
similar results from Xu, Chen and Pan, 1986) and for the effects of roughness
8
Using the usual matrix notation
Corr**f4 rvtotti*
tt
Figure 2.14: Values of cavitation inception index on the test body of Fig.
2.2 (Johnsson, 1969 [2.41])
on otherwise smooth bodies, wall shear layers and free shear layers (jets).
These are all complicated and inter-related effects due to the two types of
scale effect previously mentioned. At present from Arndt (1981), Rood and
other sources, there seems to be a general consensus that cavitation that
forms in pre-existing regions of a laminar separation (Types 2,4,5 on smooth
bodies) has an inception index of the form
'Cps Cpt (2.4)
where —CpS, denotes the mean pressure coefficient near the end of the sep
aration region and Cpt is a " measure" of the unsteady pressure fluctuations.
Generally,CT;< —Cp min except when mass diffusion (Holl, 1969) drives the
process and gaseous cavitation results can be seen in Fig. 2.15 for the cases
32 Cavitation
125
15 63 IS IS
RELATIVE IMPELLER FLOW RATE, Q/Qta
Figure 2.15: Cavitation inception data at the inlet of the pump shown in
Fig. 2.5 (Stoffel and Ludwig, 1990 [2.72]).
These data were obtained visually for one set of gap clearances.
j j > —Cp min. The characteristics of the turbulent pressure fluctuations are
not well known, although rms measurements for flows near turbulent reat-
tachment locations and laminar/turbulent boundary layer transitions may
exceed several percent of the dynamic pressure. In the absence of a pre
existing laminar separation either travelling bubble (Type 1) or attached
cavities (Types 6, 7, 8) may appear at inception. In these cases including
travelling bubble cavitation
where Cp m j„ is the body minimum pressure coefficient and in some cases it

has been suggested that
°i ~ -Cptr - Cptt (2.5)
where Cptr is the pressure coefficient at the site of transition (itself not a
constant in real flows) and Cptt an equivalent unsteady term caused by tur
bulent pressure fluctuations. Again, although these may approach 20% of
the dynamic pressure, little is known of the statistical spatial or temporal
properties of these fluctuations. The last case, 12, pure wall shear flow is a
limiting case and Arndt (1969) gives the relationship
CTj = l6Cf (2.6)
Where cj is the turbulent shear stress coefficient.

Travelling bubble cavitation inception on non-separating bodies is a rate-
dependent phenomenon and clearly depends upon the number density distri
bution of microbubbles. The attached forms of inception are not so depen
dent on these nuclei and are relatively independent of dissolved air content.
Xu et al.(1986) clearly are the first to show quantitatively the effect of mi-
crobubble concentration on the transition of a travelling bubble cavitation
o n a c p m j n = —1.0 Schiebe body with nuclei (about 2-5 per cc of 40 mi
crometer diameter) to a "patch" cavity with about one-half as many nuclei
of less than about 30 micrometers diameter. The nucleation effects become

serious in extreme conditions of deaerated liquid such as the vacuum towing
tank at Wageningen (Marin). There it shows clearly (Kuiper, 1979) that
freestream nuclei must be supplied and if these are not enough, local nuclei
must be supplied from artificial roughness (Figure 2.16). Artificial rough-
Without electrolysis With electrolysis
Figure 2.16: Photographs showing the effect of electrolysis-generated cavi

tation nuclei in a de-aerated towing tank (Kuiper, 1979 [2.50])
ness as a source of nucleation is not without its problems, but in a different

context may be used to insure turbulent flow on model scales avoiding any
34 Cavitation
separation and then the inception rule tends to follow Eq. 2.5 (Huang, et
al., 1986; Huang, 1984) but is still nuclei dependent. Despite these advances
in technique and nuclei measurement methods it does not yet appear pos
sible to predict beforehand the onset of attached cavitation or travelling
bubble cavitation on non-separating arbitrary bodies with arbitrary nuclei

concentrations and dissolved gas content.
All of these considerations apply to hydraulic machines except that the
additional complexities of these flows call into play the other types of cavita
tion as shown in Fig. 2.15; here as mentioned before the "blade" cavitation
includes attached as well as travelling bubble types. Determination of the

inception point is not readily possible in most hydraulic machines hence
the growing interest in acoustic detection already mentioned (Gopalakrish-
nan, 1985; Gulich, 1986, 1989; McNulty and Pearsall, 1979; McNulty, 1985)
and there does appear to be a useful correlation between noise and erosion.
But, as Gopalakrishnan emphasises, erosion is so important for long life in
commercial/industrial application that visual observation of the blade cavi
tation is often required as an acceptance procedure. Gulich, in an extensive
series of tests, correlates the relationship between the "bubble length" of
blade cavitation at a pump inlet, erosion and empirically finds a cavitation
noise-bubble length correlation for one type of pump in a specific acoustic
measuring location (relative to the impeller inlet). But it is not often pos
sible in a commercial development visually to observe cavitation inception
in a pump as reported by Grein, Gulich and others and alternative means
based on the erosion of "soft coatings" have been widely used in recent years
(Gopalakrishnan, 1985, among others) to infer the presence of cavitation on
the inlet portions of a pump. Such "witnesses" to cavitation coincide with
the collapse of travelling bubbles (leading to the "pits" described in Knapp
et al., 1979) or the termination region of a sheet cavity already known to
be a source of great cavitation intensity, and they fulfill a useful but limited
role in the prediction of the subsequent erosive wear.
2.4.2 Nuclei Measurement

The role of "cavitation nuclei" as explained in the famous monograph by
Knapp et al. points out the necessity of nucleation but understates if any
thing just how important and subtle these effects are for the inception and
development of cavitation and its "effects". This growing appreciation has
led to a number of different approaches in trying to define what nucleation
is in liquids, its thermodynamic basis for pure fluids, the effects of micropar-
ticulates (organic, inorganic), properties of the solid surface of test bodies,

chemistry and many other physical effects beyond our present scope. There
seems to be agreement that some of solid particulates normally found in test
facilities and the natural waters of oceans and rivers serve as nuclei but quan
tifying this possibility has remained elusive. At the same time it is certain
that gas bubbles within the liquid are suitable nucleation sites for travelling
bubble cavitation and the other forms as well. Accordingly, a dual approach
has been developed over the years; one is to measure by means of a standard
cavitation experiment the susceptability of the liquid to cavitation (thereby
including all types of nuclei), and the other is to deduce by direct measure
ment the concentration and size distribution of the particulates within the
liquid and to classify them as either "solid" or microbubbles. Many examples
of both approaches can be found in the literature and they are systematically
reviewed in the International Towing Tank Tri-annual Conferences (Huang,
1990). The early development of "susceptibility" devices is traced in Arndt
(1981); the basic idea is to detect the frequency of travelling bubble col
lapse events as a function of a known (or deduced) minimum pressure in a
flow field of known geometry. Based upon the mechanics of spherical bubble
growth, Chapter 3, an initial nucleus size and concentration can be inferred.
The detection can be optical or acoustic. Both external flows or internal
flows such as a Venturi tube can be used and it appears that the Venturi
tube has received the most development from its first use by Oldenziel (1979)
and subsequent modification to include a centre body (Lecoffre, 1987). A
more recent variation of a Venturi tube with an adjustable centre body (Gin-
droz, 1990) appears to give the potential of measuring "cavitatable" nuclei
to diameters of less than 5 micrometers 7 in concentrations up to 10 nuclei
per millilitre. Optical detection methods reviewed in the current I.T.T.C.
survey of nuclei measurement methods (Huang, 1990) include light scatter
ing, phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) and direct holography with pulsed
ruby lasers. These holographic measurements can classify microparticulates
(solid or microbubble) from about 10 micrometers and larger. In principal,
light scattering instruments can detect smaller sizes. A direct comparison
of the holographic, light scattering, PDA and Venturi systems (not includ
ing the Gindroz development) was carried out at Penn State University;
these comparisons are not yet fully available, although it does appear that
7
Present holographic methods have a practical limit of about 10 micrometers. If ac
tive nuclei in tests are shown to be less than this value, new schemes capable of exact
calibration, possibly the PDA will have to be developed.
36 Cavitation
direct holographic methods and the PDA approach are comparable to mi-
crobubbles in the absence of many solid particulates. There seems to be
some problem for light scattering and the PDA methods when the test fluid
contains both microbubbles and solid microparticulates; clearly further de
velopment is needed and appears to be underway. Based upon these results,

the I.T.T.C. cavitation committee concludes that the cavitation susceptibil
ity devices (the Venturi tubes) be used as a reference device for continu
ously monitoring during cavitation tests; that significant progress has been
made with phase Doppler anemometry, but that holography remains the
best method to discriminate solid and gas microparticulates.

It is of course possible to detect microbubbles acoustically; indeed this is
a standard oceanographic technique (Akulichev et al., 1986; Medwin, 1977).
More recently, the attention of acoustic beams by microbubbles in a water
tunnel test facility has been used to infer microbubble distributions (Taka-
gawa, 1989) which appears to have avoided the difficulties with these kinds
of measurements for internal flows in water tunnels and pumps.
In closing this section we review briefly the number and size distributions
of nuclei found in different circumstances; Fig. 2.17 shows such a "global"
collection from many sources. Note that at a given size, say 20 to 50 microm
eters, there are five orders of magnitude difference in these populations. The
shape of all these distributions is of the form N(R) ~ Rn where n lies be
tween 3 and 4. There must be a cut off size below which N(R) decreases but
this is not known for the present data. One may ask what are the important
sizes for cavitation inception on the bodies and in the machines described
for travelling bubble cavitation (the only form for which bubble mechanics
closely applicable). We may follow Knapp et al. to state that the critical
bubble radius from which vaporous growth may proceed is given by
<7i+ C P m i n < - — — (2.7)

o i l Cj
where S is the surface tension (N/m), R is the radius of the bubble at the
location where the pressure is minimum and q is the free stream dynamic
pressure. For example, from the test data of Fig. 2.14 for a test speed
of 13 m/s , values of Oi + Cp m j n — —0.25 are evident and from Eq. 2.7
we obtain a value of R = 4.6 micrometers (taking 5" = .073 N/m). The
implication of the inception data and this result is that no larger bubbles
were available to cavitate. But this critical formulation is a quasi-static
process; on real bodies the physical space and time available for classical
bubble growth are all limited so that even much larger bubbles will not
10''
PETERSON el ol
71975) to-=0.49,
SCATTERING
O
PETERSON elol
(I975)(<7»0.49 1
HOLOGRAPHY) ARNDT 8> KELLER
~ I0I2£ (1976)
AIR C O N T E N T -
12.5 ppm
O
KELLER 8
I- GAVRILOV WEITENOORF
o (1970) (1976)
-z. (FRESH WATER) GASSED WATER
3
10' AIR CONTENT-
3 0 ppm
KATZ0978) .
m BILLET
(1985)
\-
a 10" -BEERS &REID ARNDT a
KELLER (1976)
MICROPLANKTI
AIR CONTENT-
(1973) 6.3 ppm
CO KOOAMA et a I.
z (1964)
MEDWIN (1977)
cc GAVRILOV (1970) (OCEAN, AUGUST)
UJ
CD 10s JAFTER STANDING
5 HOURS) /■ GATES
5 / (1978)
MEDWIN (1977)
(OCEAN, FEBRUARY)
I0»
RADIUS R (micrometers)
Figure 2.17: Summary plot of the distribution of microparticulates and mi-

crobubbles from several investigators measured by a variety of techniques
(Murai, 1986 [2.62])
38 Cavitation
be physically observed as shown in the sequence of Fig. 2.6. In a recent

important numerical simulation of travelling bubble inception; Meyer (Meyer
et al., 1990) showed that on a 5.08 cm Schiebe body (cp m , n = —0.75),
to reproduce the observed value of a, = 0.55 at a flow speed of 9 m/s
the critical radius was 11.7 micrometers; full stochastic simulations over a
variety of conditions which were found to compare favourably with the actual
experiments demonstrating the need for microbubbles with a range of 25-50
micrometers diameter, long thought to be the desirable range in cavitation
test facilities. From this finding the nuclei sizes quoted by Gindroz all seem
rather "small".
2.4.3 Concluding Remarks

The importance of the nuclei population in hydrodynamic applications has
been known for some years. It now appears this is also true for hydraulic
machines, although there is still much less documentation than needed of
nuclei or microbubble populations in this field. In part, this is because a
calibrated nuclei measurement method for laboratory use has yet to be ac
cepted although there is a reasonable expectation that this will occur in the
near future. Even in the case where the nuclei distribution is known a pre
diction of the type of cavitation and inception index cannot yet be made
with certainty except for travelling bubble cavitation. The general trends
are known; namely, that with an adequate supply of nuclei, travelling bub
ble cavitation is experienced; with fewer nuclei, attached cavitation is seen
at inception even on bodies without separation. These attached forms are
typically highly three-dimensional wedges or patches and it is as if the liq
uid flow under the tensions sustained prior to inception becomes unstable to
three-dimensional growth due to a random nucleation and forms the attached
region. Even attached forms stabilised in regions of a prior laminar separa
tion or for the attached forms just mentioned have highly three-dimensional
cavitation detachment interfaces. There appears to be evidence that these
real-fluid effects (Avellan, et al., 1988) at the leading cavity edge of a play
role in the high degree of rotationality or vorticity seen in the regions of
the sheet cavity collapse; the vortical nature of these flows is a property
of the liquid flow itself, not the internal cavitation, and thus would ap
pear to be a manifestation again of the real-fluid or viscous property of the
three-dimensional flow in which the cavitation is taking place. Thus, it is
conceivable or even likely that the evolution of individual travelling bubble
cavitation events may have an important viscous flow interaction particu-
larly in the last phases of collapse/rebound. It appears to be important to

understand these vortical flows in greater detail, particularly for cloud cavi
tation, because the resulting intensity of collapse leads to erosion. Similarly,
in pumps it is necessary to know the inception of cavitation in its various
forms for the prediction of long life.

40 Cavitation
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Mech., Vol. 5, pp. 161-185, Van Dyke, M., Vincenti, W.G. and We-
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2.2 Acosta, A.J. and Parkin, B.R., 1980, "Report of the ATTC Cav
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42 Cavitation
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gal Pumps", 2nd International Pump Symposium, Turbomachinery
Lab., Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX, Childs, D. and Bailey,
J.C. (eds.), pp. 3-11.
2.32 Grein, H., 1973, "Cavitation", article in Chauvin (1973).
2.33 Giilich, J.F., 1989, "Guidelines for the Prevention of Cavita

tion in Centrifugal Feedpumps", EPRI Report GS-6398. See also,
1986, "Quantitative Prediction of Cavitation Erosion in Centrifugal
Pumps", 13th Symposium, Section on Hydraulic Machinery, Equip
ment and Cavitation. Int'l. Assoc. Hyd. Res., Montreal.
2.34 Hart, D.P., Brennen, C.E. and Acosta, A.J., 1990, "Observations of
Cavitation on a Three-dimensional Oscillating Hydrofoil", article in
Furuya (1990).
2.35 Henry, P., 1978, "Influence of the Amount of Bubble Nuclei on Cav
itation Tests of a Francis Turbine," Cavitation and Polyphase Flow

Forum, A.S.M.E., Fort Collins, pp. 23-28.
2.36 Holl, J.W., 1969, "Limited Cavitation", Robertson and Wislicenus
(1969), pp. 26-64.
2.37 Huang, T.T., 1964, "The Effects of Turbulent Stimulation on Cavi

tation of Axisymmetric Headforms", in Morgan and Parkin (1964).
2.38 Huang, T.T. and Shen, Y.T., 1986, "The Application of Turbulence
Stimulator to Reduce Scale Effect on Cavitation", in Anon. (1986),
pp. 182-190.
2.39 Huang, T.T., 1990, Report of the Cavitation Committee, Interna
tional Towing Tank Conference, Madrid.
2.40 Janigro, A. and Ferrini, F., 1973, "Inducer Pumps", article in Chau-
vin (1973).
2.41 Johnsson, C.A., 1969, "Cavitation Inception on Headforms, Further
Tests", 12th I.T.T.C, Rome, pp. 381-392.
2.42 Kanijo, K., Suzuki, A., Shimura, T., Hashimoto, R., Watanabe, M.,
Watanabe, Y., Iwabuchi, T. and Mori, Y., 1975, "Experimental In
vestigation of Small, High-Speed, High-Head Liquid Oxygen Pump",
N.A.L. TR-415 (in Japanese).
2.43 Kato, H., 1985, "On the Structure of Cavity - New Insight into the
Cavity Flows", Int'l. Symp. Jets and Cavities, Kim, J., Furuya, O.
and Parkin, B.R. (eds.), A.S.M.E., F.E.D., Vol. 31.
2.44 Keller, A.P., 1979, "Cavitation Inception Measurement and Flow Vi
sualisation on Axisymmetric Bodies at Two Different Free Stream
Turbulence Levels and Test Procedures", article in Margan and
Parkin (1979).
2.45 Kim, J.H. and Yang, W.J. (eds.), 1990, "Third International Sympo
sium on Transport Phenomena and Dynamics of Rotating Machin
ery", ISROMAC-3, Hemisphere.
44 Cavitation
2.46 Knapp, R.T., 1952, "Cavitation Mechanics and its Relation to the
Design of Hydraulic Equipment," Proc. (a) Inst. Mech. Engr., Vol.
166, pp. 150-163.
2.47 Knapp, R.T., Daily, J.W. and Hammitt, F.G., 1979, Cavitation, Inst.
Hydraulic Research, U. Iowa, Iowa USA.
2.48 Kubota, A., 1988, "Numerical Studies of Unsteady Cavitation on a

Hydrofoil by a Bubbly Two-Phase Flow Model", Ph.D. Thesis, U.
Tokyo, Dept. Nav. Arch., H. Kato, Dir.
2.49 Kubota, S., Kato, H., Yamaguchi, H. and Maeda, M., 1987, "Un
steady Structure Measurement of Cloud Cavitation on a Foil Section
Using Conditional Sampling Technique", Int'l. Symp. on Cavitation
Research Facilities, A.S.M.E., F.E.D. Vol. 57, Holl, J.W. and Billet,
M.L. (eds.), pp. 161-169.
2.50 Kuiper, G., 1979, "Some Experiments with Distinguished Types of

Cavitation on Ship Propellers", Morgan and Parkin (1979), pp. 171-
207.
2.51 Lecoffre, Y., 1987, 'Procedures and Instrumentation for Monitoring

Gas Content in Cavitation Test Loops", Int. Symp. on Cavitation
Research Facilities, Holl, J.W. and Billet, M.L. (eds.), A.S.M.E.,
Boston.
2.52 Li, S., Ni, A., Huang, J. and Xu, F., 1986, "Estimation of Incipi
ent Cavitation Number by a Probability Method", Int'l. Symp. on
Propeller and Cavitation, Wuxi, China (1986), pp. 281-285.
2.53 McNulty, P.J. and Pearsall, I.S., 1979, "Cavitation Inception in

Pumps", in Morgan and Parkin (1979), pp. 163-170.
2.54 McNulty, P.J., 1985, "Detection of Cavitation Inception by a Single

Point Acoustical Measurement", article in Arndt and Webb (1985).
2.55 Medwin, H., 1977, "Acoustical Determination of Bubble Size Spec

tra", J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 62, pp. 1041-1044. Also see Medwin,
H. and Breitz, N.G., 1989, "Ambient and Transient Bubble Spectral
Densities in Quiescent Seas and Under Spilling Breakers", J. Geo-
phys. Res., Vol. 94, No. C9, pp. 12,751-12,759, Sept. 15.
2.56 Meyer, R.S., Billet, M.L. and Holl, J.W., 1990, "Free-Stream Nuclei
and Cavitation", in Morgan and Parkin (1990), pp. 55-62.
2.57 Morgan, W.B.and Parkin, B.R. (eds.), 1979, International Sympo

sium on Cavitation Inception, A.S.M.E.
2.58 Morgan, W.B. and Parkin, B.R. (eds.), 1984, Int'l. Symp. Cavitation,
A.S.M.E.
2.59 Morgan, W.B. and Parkin, B.R. (eds.), 1989, Int'l. Symp. Cavitation,
A.S.M.E.
2.60 Murai, H and Kinoe, T., 1968, Rep. Inst. High Speed Mechanics
(Sendai), Vol. 20, pp. 263-285.
2.61 Murai, H. and Itoh,, H., 1985, "Pressure Fluctuations in Axial Flow
Pump Induced by Transient Cavitation", article in Arndt and Webb
(1985), pp. 111-118.
2.62 Murai, H. (ed.), 1986, International Symposium on Cavitation,

Sendai.
2.63 Narasaka, T., Oba, R. and Hirata, Y., 1990, "Cavitation Observations
Around the CY4-Hydrofoil by Means of High Speed Photography",
Rept. Inst. of Fl. Science, Tohoku Univ., Vol. 1, pp. 1-13.
2.64 Nishiyama, H. and Nishiyama, T., 1980, "Dynamic Transfer Charac

teristics of Partially Cavitated Hydrofoil Cascade," 10th IAHR Symp.
on Hyd. Res., Tokyo, pp. 243-254.
2.65 Oldenziel, D.M., 1979, "New Instruments for Cavitation Research",

in Morgan and Parkin (1979), pp. 111-124.
2.66 Ooi, K.K. and Acosta, A.J., 1983, "The Utilization of Specially Tai
lored Air Bubbles as Static Pressure Sensors in a Jet', J. Fl. Eng.,
Vol. 106, No. 4, pp. 459-465.
2.67 Robertson, J.M. and Wislicenus, G.F., 1969, Cavitation State of

Knowledge, A.S.M.E.
2.68 Rood, E.P., 1989, "Mechanisms of Cavitation Inception", in Morgan

and Parkin (1989).
46 Cavitation
2.69 Sacks, L.E. and Nottage, H.B., 1965, "System Oscillations Associated
with a Cavitating Inducer", / . Basic Eng., A.S.M.E. Ser. D., vol. 87.
2.70 Schiebe, F.R., 1972, "Measurements of the Cavitation Susceptibility
of Water Using Standard Bodies", Rept. 118, St. Anthony Falls Hyd.
Lab., Univ. of Minnesota.
2.71 Stirnemann, A., Eberl, J. and Bolleter, U., 1987, "Experimental De
termination of the Dynamic Transfer Matrix for a Pump", J. Fl. Eng.
Trans., A.S.M.E., Vol. 109, No. 3, pp. 218-225.
2.72 Stouffel, B. and Ludwig, G., 1990, "The Influence of the Gap Flow
at the Impeller Inlet on Cavitation and Part Load Recirculation of a
Centrifugal Pump", article in Kim and Yang (1990).
2.73 Takagawa, S., 1989, "A New Acoustic Attenuation Method for Profil
ing of Cavitation Nuclei Distribution", in Morgan and Parkin (1989),
pp. 73-78.
2.74 Takamatsu, Y., Ishizaka, K., Kishikawa, T. and Kusaka, Y., 1980,
"An Investigation of Tandem-Bladed Helical Inducer for Cavitation-
Resistant Pump", 10th I.A.H.R. Symp. on Hydraulic Res. Sect, for
Hyd. Mech., Equip, and Cavitation, Tokyo, pp. 291-303.
2.75 Valensek, B., 1983, "Pump Prestages for Extreme Suction Heads",
Mechanical Engineering Journal, Turboinstitut, Ljubljana.
2.76 van der Muelen, J.H.J., 1986, "On Correlating Erosion and Lumines
cence from Cavitation on a Hydrofoil", article in Anon. (1986), pp.
261-267.
2.77 van der Muelen, J.H.J. and Wijnant, I.L., 1990, "On the Structure
and Intensity of Sheet Cavitation", in Cavitation and Multiphase
Flow Forum, Furuya, O. (ed.) loc cit.
2.78 Wood, G.M. and Whippen, W.G., 1969, "Cavitation Effects in Turbo-
machinery", article in Robertson and Wislicenus (1969), pp. 148-165.
2.79 Wu, T.Y., 1972, "Cavity and Wake Flows", Ann. Rev. Fl. Mech., Vol.
4, pp. 243-285.
2.80 Xu, W., Chen, G. and Pan, S., 1986, "The Influence of Cavitation
Nuclei on Cavitation Inception on the Smooth Axisymmetric Bodies",
article in Anon. (1986).

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Chapter 2

Cavitation and Cavitation

2.1 Cavitation Phenomenon

'Oxford Compact Unabridged Dictionary, 1971.

1973) or "artificial" cavitation. Indeed, the deliberate introduction of ven­

2.1.2 Hydrodynamic Cavitation

stood meaning of the term "cavitation" in a hydraulic machine; namely, the

ventilation or artificial cavitation is ruled out). The first of these he terms

are many close similarities to boiling and vaporous cavitation occurring in

2.2 Types of Cavitation

and clearly then

is a condition for vaporous cavitation inception. As Holl (1969) shows, if

2.2.2 Scale Effects and Cavitation Types

In most applications in hydraulic machinery similarity of operation follows

• T y p e 1 These effects change the external flow field by changes in the

• T y p e 2 These effects change the physical processes governing the

These are useful distinctions because, as they mention, Type 1 affects

Item Type Description

the nose of hydrofoils or axisymmetric

the body surface - in a separated region

Table 2.1: Types of cavitation

vane. Based on the observations of Giilich (1989), it is probable that an

Figure 2.1: Cavitation on a "Schiebe" body having Cp m ; n = 0.75; the same

l.Rome 2. AEW 3. Delft

4. NPL 5. Cal. Tech. 6. Cal. Tech.

7. SSPA 8. SSPA 9. SSPA

Figure 2.2: Different forms of cavitation on a smooth body with a laminar

The presence of laminar separation and laminar transition is a Type

applied with apparent success to propeller blade leading edges, (Kuiper,

Sheet cavity on n iC body with no added nuclei U00=6.8 m/s, a =0.60

Bubble cavities on ITTC body with added nuclei U 00 =6.8m/s, a =0.60

tation according to Holl (1969). And with continued decrease in cavitation

terminus approaches that of a potential flow has led to extensive mathemat­

Figure 2.7: Sequence of photographs showing progressive states of cavita­

lating shear flow and it is as a consequence an important feature in many

to vorticity being perpendicular to the cavity (i.e., in the spanwise direc­

shows photographs of the cavitation development in the eye of a shrouded

The term vortical cavitation is used to designate the strongly rotational

initially uniform microbubbles in a turbulent non-cavitating flow as a mea­

2.3 Cavitation Effects

2.3.1 General Phenomena

As the cavitation index is decreased from inception the extent of cavitation

2.3.2 Influences on Machine Performance

OvU»6oo Index Btted on Inlet Relative Velocity, a

Figure 2.11: Cavitation performance of an efficient centrifugal pump at con­

may require operation with significantly lower values of cavitation index

OJOJ 010 0.1)

CAVITATION INDEX, o » ( p r pY) /pU? / 2

Figure 2.12: Cavitation performance of a conical inducer pump (Kamijyo et

' R a t i o of developed blade length to spacing in the peripheral direction.

2.3.3 System Stability

discussed at length in Chapter 7. In these preliminary remarks it is per­

anticipating the results of Chapter 7, that these quasi-steady lumped param­

2.4 Cavitation Nucleation and Inception

'Cps Cpt (2.4)

where Cp m j„ is the body minimum pressure coefficient and in some cases it

Where cj is the turbulent shear stress coefficient.

of less than about 30 micrometers diameter. The nucleation effects become

Without electrolysis With electrolysis

Figure 2.16: Photographs showing the effect of electrolysis-generated cavi­

ness as a source of nucleation is not without its problems, but in a different

bubble cavitation on non-separating arbitrary bodies with arbitrary nuclei

includes attached as well as travelling bubble types. Determination of the

1973) or "artificial" cavitation. Indeed, the deliberate introduction of ven

terminus approaches that of a potential flow has led to extensive mathemat

Figure 2.7: Sequence of photographs showing progressive states of cavita

to vorticity being perpendicular to the cavity (i.e., in the spanwise direc

initially uniform microbubbles in a turbulent non-cavitating flow as a mea

Figure 2.11: Cavitation performance of an efficient centrifugal pump at con

discussed at length in Chapter 7. In these preliminary remarks it is per

anticipating the results of Chapter 7, that these quasi-steady lumped param

Figure 2.16: Photographs showing the effect of electrolysis-generated cavi

2.13 Brennen, C.E., 1978, "The Unsteady, Dynamic Characteristics of Hy

2.20 Chebayevskii, V.F. and Petrov, V.J., 1973, Cavitation Character

2.31 Gopalakrishnan, S., 1985, "Modern Cavitation Criteria for Centrifu

2.33 Giilich, J.F., 1989, "Guidelines for the Prevention of Cavita

2.37 Huang, T.T., 1964, "The Effects of Turbulent Stimulation on Cavi

2.55 Medwin, H., 1977, "Acoustical Determination of Bubble Size Spec

2.57 Morgan, W.B.and Parkin, B.R. (eds.), 1979, International Sympo

2.64 Nishiyama, H. and Nishiyama, T., 1980, "Dynamic Transfer Charac