Smooth particle hydrodynamics method for modeling cavitation-induced fracture of a fluid under shock-wave loading

Abstract

It is demonstrated that the method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics can be used to study the flow structure in a cavitating medium with a high concentration of the gas phase and to describe the process of inversion of the two-phase state of this medium: transition from a cavitating fluid to a system consisting of a gas and particles. A numerical analysis of the dynamics of the state of a hemispherical droplet under shock-wave loading shows that focusing of the shock wave reflected from the free surface of the droplet leads to the formation of a dense, but rapidly expanding cavitation cluster at the droplet center. By the time t = 500 µs, the bubbles at the cluster center not only coalesce and form a foam-type structure, but also transform to a gas-particle system, thus, forming an almost free rapidly expanding zone. The mechanism of this process defined previously as an internal “cavitation explosion” of the droplet is validated by means of mathematical modeling of the problem by the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method. The deformation of the cavitating droplet is finalized by its decomposition into individual fragments and particles.