Simulation of the Effect of Particle-bubble Size Ratio on the Collapsing Dynamics of a Cavitation Bubble Near a Particle

Abstract

Abstract The synergistic effect of cavitation bubbles and sediment particles on material damage is a significant problem in fluid machinery. The dynamic behavior of a cavitation bubble near a spherical particle were simulated in this study using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method. The effects of the particle-bubble size ratio δ on the bubble profiles, the collapse time, the micro-jets and the pressure at the particle surface have been investigated under the conditions of three values of stand-off distance γ. The results show that (1) the bubble collapse time rises as the particle-bubble size ratio δ increases; (2) the peak values of the maximum jet velocity and the maximum pressure exerting on the particle appear at γ = 1.0 and δ = 1.2, which are 165.3 m/s and 10.46 MPa, respectively; (3) the influence on the particle caused by the micro-jets cannot be ignored when the stand-off distance is less than 1.5.