Numerical studies on applications of cavitation models in water hammer-induced cavitating flows in pipelines

Abstract

Hydraulic transients caused by a fast-closing needle valve and accompanying water hammer-induced cavitation-vortex flow are numerically investigated using the shear stress transport (SST) k–ω model with a pressure–density equation considering the weak compressibility of water and the new cavitation models based on the Rayleigh–Plesset equation that takes into account the surface tension and kinematic viscosity effect on the bubble radius change rate, respectively. The predicted pressure evolutions exhibit reasonable agreement with the experimental data, and the interfacial surface tension-based model is the most accurate in predicting transient pressure evolutions, followed by the kinematic viscosity-based model and the Singhal cavitation model, based on three proposed error indices with minimum of 0.0515, 0.1337, and 0.0035. The wave speed in the upper part of the cavitation trailing edge is higher than that in the lower part, resulting in the evolution of inclination angle of the trailing edge. According to the convective transport mechanism of vorticity, the change rate of vorticity in non-cavitation regions is mainly dominated by the stretching–twisting term and the turbulent fluctuation–diffusion term. In cavitation regions, the dilatation–shrink term makes significant contributions to the change rate of vorticity, and the baroclinic-torque term mainly acts near the edge of the cavitation region.