Occurrence Of Cavitation Research Articles

Experimental Parameters Influencing the Cavitation Noise of an Oscillating NACA0015 Hydrofoil

The strong increase in anthropogenic underwater noise has caused a growing intention to design quieter ships given that ship propellers are one of the dominating noise sources along the worldwide shipping routes. This creates an imminent demand for deeper knowledge on the noise generation mechanisms of propeller cavitation. A cavitating, oscillating two-dimensional NACA0015 hydrofoil is analyzed with hydrophone and high-speed video recording as a simplified and manipulatable representative of a propeller blade in a ship’s wake field for the identification of major influencing parameters on the radiated noise. A pneumatic drive allows the application of asymmetrical temporal courses of the angle of attack, a novel amendment to the widely reported sinusoidal setups. Three different courses are tested with various cavitation numbers. The combination of a moderate angle increase and a rapid decrease is found to generate significantly higher pressure peaks compared to symmetrical angular courses. Considering that the rapid change of the angle of attack caused by the inhomogeneous wake field behind the hull is the core of the cavitation occurrence, the understanding of its influence may contribute to the design of quieter ships in the future while still allowing for the necessary high propeller efficiency.

Research on Cavitation Performance of Bidirectional Integrated Pump Gate

A pump gate is a device that controls the flow of water. It can stop the flood when it comes, drain the ponding gathered in the city, and improve the water circulation of the city. Traditional pumping stations require a large land area, and their pump houses and gates need to be designed separately. Furthermore, the construction period of traditional pumping stations is lengthy, and the maintenance costs are high. It can no longer meet the needs of modern cities for water environment management. Therefore, it is imperative to design a new type of pump gate. The integrated pump gate introduced in this paper is an integrated construction of gates and pumps to achieve automatic control and bidirectional operation. The research mainly consists of three parts: design of pumping station, theoretical analysis, and numerical calculation. By studying the unstable flow inside the integrated pump, the characteristics and the degree of cavitation occurrence are predicted. This can provide a reference basis for the optimal design and stability operation of the integrated pump gate. To investigate cavitation in an integrated pump gate, numerical simulations were performed for multiple operating conditions using the SST turbulence model. Constant numerical simulations of cavitation through numerical calculation, the characteristic curves of the integrated pump gate under forward and reverse operation at different flow points were obtained, and flow field analysis was performed for the model pump at 1.0 Q. The location and degree of cavitation occurrence were predicted. In this study, a preliminary analysis was conducted to investigate the influence of cavitation on the internal flow characteristics of integrated gate pumps. The research collected data related to cavitation characteristics, streamline patterns, and blade pressures. Additionally, the study explored the characteristics of cavitation phenomena, laying the foundation for the optimization of the design of bidirectional operation in integrated sluice gate pumps for future practical engineering applications.

Cavitation Observation and Noise Characteristics in Rectangular Throttling Groove Spool

A hydraulic cavitation platform was developed in order to examine the occurrence of cavitation in the rectangular throttling groove spool and its correlation with noise characteristics. The test valve is constructed using PMMA material, which possesses excellent transparency. This transparency enables direct visual examination of cavitation occurring at the throttle slot. Additionally, high-speed photography is employed to observe the flow characteristics of the valve port, facilitating the analysis of cavitation morphology changes. Furthermore, a noise meter is utilized to measure and record the noise level and its corresponding spectrum. The flow field and flow phenomena at the rectangular throttling groove spool were studied using high-speed photography, noise spectrum analysis, and other methods. It is discovered that back pressure has the greatest influence on cavitation and flow separation, followed by the influence of intake pressure on cavitation morphology and noise. As the back pressure lowers, the cavitation morphology changes from flaky to cloudy, and the cavitation intensity, distribution area, and noise level increase. Background noise and cavitation noise have distinct frequency differences; cavitation noise in the rectangular throttling groove spool is high-frequency noise, with a frequency of more than 8 kHz, and the higher the frequency, the greater the difference in noise value. The magnitude of the alterations in noise intensity is minimal. The noise values exhibit slight variations of 2.3 dB, 4 dB, and 4.3 dB under varying back pressure circumstances of 3 MPa, 4 MPa, and 5 MPa inlet pressure, respectively. It is recommended to use the frequency of cavitation noise to detect the cavitation state and monitor the cavitation process. In the low-frequency region, the cavitation noise in the rectangular throttle groove valve core is not significantly different. Once the center frequency surpasses 3.15 kHz, a discernible distinction emerges, with the magnitude of the discrepancy in noise value increasing as the frequency rises. In other words, the cavitation cloud does not pulsate at one single frequency, but rather in a range of relatively high frequencies (more than 3.15 kHz).

The Transient Characteristics of the Cavitation Evolution of the Shroud of High-Speed Pump-Jet Propellers under Different Operating Conditions

Pump-jet propellers are currently the mainstream propulsion method for underwater vehicles, and cavitation is an important factor limiting the high speed and miniaturization of pump-jet propellers. In order to explore the cavitation performance of high-speed pump-jet propellers, based on the modified SST turbulence model and the Zwart cavitation model, a three-dimensional numerical simulation of unsteady internal cavitation flow was carried out by comparing the impeller with specific speed ns = 1920 using FLUENT 2020R2 software. At the same time, the occurrence and development process of cavitation under 0.95 Q, 1.0 Q, and 1.05 Q conditions were analyzed (Q is the mass flow), the changes in gas volume fraction in the impeller channel were captured, the distribution characteristics of cavitation under different NPSH values were explored, and the change law of cavitation with time was determined. The results show that, when NPSH dropped to 95 m, the impeller cavitation first occurred under the 1.05 Q operating condition, and the impeller cavitation volume fraction was 0.0379525. When NPSH dropped to 85 m, the impeller cavitation occurred under the 1.0 Q operating condition, and the impeller cavitation volume fraction was 0.0185164. When NPSH dropped to 80 m, the impeller cavitation occurred under the condition of 0.95 Q, and the volume fraction of the impeller cavitation was 0.013541. The high-speed pump-jet propeller had better anti-cavitation ability with a small flow rate. The cavitation distribution law under the three operating conditions was similar; cavitation was first generated on the impeller inlet edge and near the shroud, and the vacuoles with large volumes were mostly concentrated on the impeller inlet side. As the NPSH gradually decreased, the entire flow channel was gradually occupied by vacuoles. As the flow decreased, the corresponding NPSH also decreased. When NPSH dropped to 50 m, the volume fraction of the impeller under all three operating conditions reached around 0.4. As the cavitation only occurred on the suction surface, the volume fraction of the cavitation on the suction surface exceeded 0.8, at which time the impeller had already undergone severe cavitation. Within a complete cycle, bubbles first appeared at the inlet edge of the impeller (measured near the shroud) and gradually spread toward the middle and rear of the impeller, ultimately covering the suction surface of the impeller. Under the design condition, the experimental results of the model pump were consistent with the numerical simulation results, and the error was only 2.68%, thus verifying the reliability of the numerical simulation. The research results provide a reference for the in-depth study of the cavitation performance of high-speed pump-jet propellers and provide a good theoretical basis and practical significance in the engineering field for the high-speed and miniaturization process of high-speed pump-jet propellers.

Large Eddy Simulation of Cavitation Jets from an Organ-Pipe Nozzle: The Influence of Cavitation on the Vortex Coherent Structure

High-speed water jets are widely used in deep mining and the in-depth study of jet characteristics helps to improve drilling efficiency. Three-dimensional Large Eddy Simulation is used to simulate turbulent flows generated by an organ-pipe nozzle. The simulation is validated with existing experimental data and is focused on the evolution and interaction of cavitation bubbles and vortices. Dynamic mode decomposition is performed to extract structural information about the different motion modes and their stability. Results show that the dominant fluid frequency is positively correlated with inlet pressure while unrelated to the divergence angle. Meanwhile, jets’ oscillation is amplified by a large divergence angle, which facilitates the occurrence of cavitation. Results about the flow field outside of an organ-pipe nozzle advance the understanding of the basic mechanism of cavitation jets.

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Suction Valve Opening on the Performance and Detection of Cavitation in the Centrifugal Pump Based on Acoustic Analysis Technique

The pump performance and occurrence of cavitation directly depends on different operating conditions. To cover a wide range of operation conditions for detecting cavitation in this work, investigations on the effect of various suction valve openings on cavitation in the pump were carried out. In order to analyse various levels of cavitation in different operation conditions, the effect of the decrease in the inlet suction pressure of the centrifugal pump by controlling the inlet suction valve opening was investigated using this experimental setup. Hence, the acoustic and pressure signals under different inlet valve openings and different flow rates, namely, 103, 200, 302 l/min were collected for this purpose. A detailed analysis of the results obtained from the acoustic signal was carried out to predict cavitation in the pump under different operating conditions. Also, the acoustic signal was investigated in time domain through the use of the same statistical features. The FFT technique was used to analyse the acoustic signal in the frequency domain. In addition, in this work an attempt was made to find a relationship between the cavitation and noise characteristics using the acoustic technique for identifying cavitation within a pump.

Modelling and evaluating piston slap-induced cavitation of cylinder liners in heavy-duty diesel engines.

Cavitation erosion of cylinder liner seriously affects the operational reliability and service life of heavy-duty diesel engines. The accuracy of the modeling-based cavitation risk evaluation is limited by the unclear correspondence between cylinder liner vibration and coolant cavitation. This report is intended to investigate the correspondence between cylinder liner vibration and coolant pressure by combining vibration cavitation test, pressure gradient calculation, and visualization observation. The cavitation risk of the cylinder liner under piston slap is also quantitatively analyzed based on the nonlinear structural dynamics model. The results show that the occurrence of cavitation will cause a nonlinear relationship between the cylinder liner acceleration and the coolant pressure. The difference in cavitation risk for each cylinder is related to the structural modal characteristics of the crankcase. In addition, the effect of piston-liner clearance and piston pin offset on the cavitation risk is investigated based on the dynamics model.

Electromagnetic pump with rotating permanent magnets operation at low inlet pressures

This study aimed to investigate the performance of an electromagnetic induction pump with rotating permanent magnets under different inlet pressure conditions. The tested cylindrical-type pump was placed in the test loop to test its parameters while pumping liquid sodium. The measurements of the pump characteristics were carried out at the different inlet pressure values. The inlet pressure was varied, changing initial overpressure in the loop's expansion tank from 0,1 to 1,75 bars. Inlet pressure influenced the cavitation occurrence in the pump channel, and thus, the maximal flow rate varied from 15,2 to 73 l/s. In addition to the pressure-flow rate characteristics, various data were collected during the experiments, such as drive unit power, vibration data, and acoustic signals. Analysis of these parameters showed a clear correlation between the inlet pressure and the apparent cavitation process in the pump channel. This study aimed to establish the operational limits for the electromagnetic induction pump with rotating permanent magnets. The results indicate that the pump can safely operate within the range of inlet pressure values of 0,6 bar and cavitation number values of 3,2.

A Method for Designing of Hydraulic Actuators Using Digital Hydraulic Pump and Multichamber Cylinder

Abstract Hydraulic actuation systems have a broad range of applications covering almost all areas of manufacturing and production and also the service industry. However, it is usual for systems to have low energy efficiency. In recent decades, due to global environmental concerns, research in the field of digital hydraulics to develop more efficient hydraulic systems has increased. In this paper, an analysis of the possible combinations of chambers in a multichamber cylinder is presented. A mathematical expression is derived to verify the total number of combinations of chambers that it is possible to achieve for a cylinder with four or more chambers and that result in different constant velocities without cavitation occurring. In addition, a digital hydraulic pump is considered a supply unit and, since it has discrete output flow rates, an analytical method to combine the pump with a multichamber cylinder is developed resulting in a total number of cylinder velocities with a required resolution. For application in a positioning system, design guidelines for an actuator using a cylinder with four chambers and a digital hydraulic pump with three fixed displacement units are presented in which an optimization algorithm for the calculation of the cylinder areas and the volumetric displacement of the pumps is applied. The proposed approaches were applied to design a proof-of-concept and the experimental values presented very good accuracy when compared with the results obtained with the model. Closed-loop position control responses show that the system can achieve the required setting time with a smooth movement and steady-state error of around 1 mm.

Radiofrequency ablation of lung metastases of colorectal cancer: could early radiomics analysis of the ablation zone help detect local tumor progression?

To determine whether radiomics data can predict local tumor progression (LTP) following radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of colorectal cancer (CRC) lung metastases on the first revaluation chest CT. This case-control single-center retrospective study included 95 distinct lung metastases treated by RFA (in 39 patients, median age: 63.1 years) with a contrast-enhanced CT-scan performed 3 months after RFA. Forty-eight radiomics features (RFs) were extracted from the 3D-segmentation of the ablation zone. Several supervised machine-learning algorithms were trained in 10-fold cross-validation on reproducible RFs to predict LTP, with/without denoising CT-scans. An unsupervised classification based on reproducible RFs was built with k-means algorithm. There were 20/95 (26.7%) relapses within a median delay of 10 months. The best model was a stepwise logistic regression on raw CT-scans. Its cross-validated performances were: AUROC = 0.72 (0.58-0.86), area under the Precision-Recall curve (AUPRC) = 0.44. Cross-validated balanced-accuracy, sensitivity and specificity were 0.59, 0.25 and 0.93, respectively, using p = 0.5 to dichotomize the model predicted probabilities (vs 0.71, 0.70 and 0.72, respectively using p = 0.188 according to Youden index). The unsupervised approach identified two clusters, which were not associated with LTP (p = 0.8211) but with the occurrence of per-RFA intra-alveolar hemorrhage, post-RFA cavitations and fistulizations (p = 0.0150). Predictive models using RFs from the post-RFA ablation zone on the first revaluation CT-scan of CRC lung metastases seemed moderately informative regarding the occurrence of LTP. Radiomics approach on interventional radiology data is feasible. However, patterns of heterogeneity detected with RFs on early re-evaluation CT-scans seem biased by different healing processes following benign RFA complications.

Effects of a conical enlarging shaft on hydraulic performances of siphon-shaft spillways

Abstract Siphon-shaft spillways can discharge large amounts of water down to the crest level in a narrow reservoir thanks to the siphonic pressures. However, cavitational pressures in the siphon-shaft limit the operating head of these spillways. An enlargement at the shaft mouth can reduce the vacuum pressures and velocities within the siphonic flows, thereby removing the risk of cavitation occurring. In this study, four different enlarging shaft profiles with various coning angles of 0°, 10°, 15°, and 20° were applied to a siphon-shaft spillway model to eliminate cavitation pressures in the shaft. These models are analyzed in three dimensions by computational fluid dynamics based on the RANS turbulence model coupled with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method to simulate fluid motion. The numerical uncertainties of the simulation were calibrated with some experimental results and techniques in the literature. The results showed that the enlargement in the shaft mouth with a conical profile significantly decreased the vacuum pressures and velocities in the siphon-shaft. Thus, the use of conical profiles considerably reduced the cavitation numbers along the shaft surface and increased the discharge performance by about 11%.

Numerical Investigation of Parameters Affecting Energy Losses in Multi-Stage Perforated Plates

Abstract Perforated plates are commonly used for flow control in pressurized systems. In different industrial applications, these devices are also used in series (multistage perforated plates) to manage high-pressure drop or reduce cavitation occurrence in industrial pipelines and enhance efficiency of gas turbines in power plants. In some specific conditions, the installation of perforated plates in series is a simple and cost-effective solution that increases plant efficiency. However, the large number of design parameters complicates the search for the optimal solution. With the aim of improving the knowledge of the most relevant design parameters, in the present investigation, the dissipation characteristics of multistage perforated plates are studied. Specifically, the analysis of the dependence of the pressure loss coefficient Eu on relative spacing and hole alignment for two subsequent identical plates is performed with CFD approach. Eight plates with different characteristics such as porosity, thickness, diameter, position, and number of holes are studied. The considered porosities vary in a range of 0.3–0.5, the ratio between plate thickness and hole diameter ranges between 0.7 and 1.3, and the number of holes between 4 and 26. A critical spacing between the plates, beyond which the pressure losses are independent of the alignment of the holes, has been calculated. The results obtained are relevant for a deeper understanding of the complex phenomenon of multistage perforated plates and can be used for the design and the installation of these devices commonly used in different engineering applications.

Numerical study on cavitation flow and induced pressure fluctuation characteristics of centrifugal pump

In order to reveal the variation law between cavitation process and pressure pulsation characteristics of centrifugal pump, the internal flow characteristics and pressure pulsation characteristics of centrifugal pump during cavitation development are studied in this paper. First, select the standard k- ε with good coincidence between external characteristics and test data under rated conditions model for calculation after compare the standard k- ε, RNG k- ε and SST k- ω. Then, based on the unsteady calculation results, the characteristics of the internal flow before and after the cavitation critical point, the frequency domain characteristics of the pressure pulsation on the volute wall and at the impeller inlet monitoring points in different cavitation stages are compared and analyzed. Finally, root mean square (RMS) is used to study the change trend of pressure fluctuation energy intensity with cavitation process. The research results show that the prediction accuracy of the characteristic points of RMS change curve of pressure fluctuation for cavitation is higher than that of the traditional 3% head drop point. Using the energy characteristics of pressure fluctuation can more accurately and timely determine the occurrence of cavitation.

Investigation of shock wave propagation and water cavitation in a water-filled double plate subjected to underwater blast

Water-filled double hulls are a prevalent design for underwater warships. Studying the propagation of underwater shock wave in such structures is essential to comprehend their shock resistance. The aim of this paper is to investigate the propagation of underwater shock wave and water cavitation in a water-filled double plate. To achieve this objective, the paper establishes a Eulerian compressible fluid model that combines the isentropic single fluid model and Newton's second law. The accuracy of the numerical solver is confirmed through validation tests. The reflection and transmission characteristics of shock wave, the dynamic response of the plate, and the cavitation in external and gap water are analyzed. It also examines the effects of the supporting springs of outer and inner plates and the area density of the outer plate on the shock wave propagation and cavitation evolution. The findings indicate that the transmitted wave in the gap water is influenced by the area density and supporting spring of the outer plate. A thicker outer plate can reduce the peak value of the transmitted wave, and a stiffer supporting spring can decrease the transmitted impulse. On the other hand, if the outer plate is freestanding or softly supported, it has minimal effects on the response of the inner plate. Moreover, the water cavitation is determined by the supporting spring of the inner plate in the case of a softly supported outer plate, and the cavitation initially develops in the gap water near the inner plate before expanding towards the external water. When the supporting spring of the outer plate is stiff, it significantly reduces the occurrence of cavitation in the external water, while the cavitation in the gap water is still determined by the support spring of the inner plate. These research findings are valuable for analyzing the shock resistance of typical double-hull submarines.

CFD analysis and prediction of centrifugal pump cavitation performance based on three-dimensional two-phase flow between impeller and worm gear

Cavitation performance is an important performance indicator of centrifugal pumps. The occurrence of cavitation will trigger a complex gas-liquid two-phase flow, which will reduce the efficiency of a low ratio centrifugal pump and cause machine vibration, as well as damage to the impeller, seriously affecting the working performance and preventing its normal operation. In this paper, CFD numerical simulation is used to analyze the cavitation characteristics of a centrifugal pump, obtain its internal flow law, calculate the cavitation margin of the device and the head generated by the pump under each inlet condition, and thus predict the critical cavitation margin of the pump at this flow point.

Numerical Simulation of Cavitation and FlashBoiling in GDI Nozzle and Spray

This work aims at using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method to establish a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine nozzle and combustion chamber model to simulate cavitation and flash boiling phenomena and analyze how these phenomena affect the engine performance. FLUENT 15.0 is used to simulate the flow of fuel. The cavitation phenomenon in GDI nozzle was simulated comprehensively, and the influences of parameter values such as inlet pressure and outlet pressure on cavitation were studied in this work. The results show that high injection pressure can promote the occurrence of cavitation and high outlet pressure has an inhibitory effect on cavitation. However, the effect of cavitation on atomization cannot be seen intuitively only through the simulation of the internal nozzle. The two-dimensional inter nozzle model established in this work is a foundation for the establishment of external nozzle model. It can provide specific boundary conditions at nozzle outlet. In addition, a three-dimensional external nozzle model was established to simulate the flash boiling spray in the combustion chamber. Based on the mechanism, it can be found that flash boiling spray improves the atomization quality. After verifying the simulation results with relevant experiments, these models could bring great convenience to the study of cavitation and flash boiling with sufficient reliability in further study.

Real-time transcranial mapping in non-human primates and human subjects during opening of the blood-brain barrier

Opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) with focused ultrasound and microbubbles has been shown repeatedly in several preclinical disease models and clinical studies. Transcranial 2D mapping of the cavitation mechanism responsible for BBB opening is however challenging in primate brains due to the skull thickness. A real-time cavitation mapping system will be presented that can transcranially map the cavitation occurrence and dose in real time throughout the BBB opening procedure in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) adult and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) pediatric patients. Passive acoustic mapping (PAM) with coherence factor (CF) correction is used to passively map the microbubble activity within the brain. Compared to passive cavitation detection (PCD), multi-element CF-PAM allows us to determine the exact location of the BBB opening without the need of contrast-enhanced MRI. An open-architecture ultrasound imager (Vantage, Verasonics, Redmond, WA) with a P4-2 (ATL, Philips) is used to provide the best tradeoff between transcranial propagation, spatial resolution and depth penetration. The system is first optimized in targeting the putamen during BBB opening in non-human primates followed by feasibility in the prefrontal cortex in AD and the pons in DIPG patients, achieving feedback rates of 2 Hz during the clinical procedures.

Determination of the influence of the sound capillary effect on the process of soaking vegetable raw materials in the acoustic extractor

The object of research is the process of liquid movement in capillaries during the extraction of biologically active substances (BAS) from plant raw materials under the action of the sound capillary effect. A characteristic feature of vegetable raw materials is a large number of pores of the capillary type. Penetration of the extractant into the raw material occurs through capillaries and leads to the filling of cells and voids in it. The process of filling the capillaries and cell voids with the extractant can be quite long and significantly increase the extraction time as a whole. It was established that the penetration of the extractant into the capillaries of plant raw materials is affected by ultrasonic vibrations that cause cavitation. Under the action of cavitation, which occurs in the ultrasonic field, the penetration of the extractant into narrow cavities and crevices is accelerated and deepened. This phenomenon is called the sound capillary effect. The analysis of literary sources showed that there are no data on the study of the conditions for the occurrence of the sound capillary effect and the effect on the speed of movement of liquid in the capillaries of ultrasonic pressure during the BAS extraction from plant raw materials. Numerical modeling was used to study the movement of liquid (extractant) in capillaries during the BAS extraction from plant raw materials under the conditions of ultrasound. As a result of the conducted research, the conditions for the occurrence of ultrasonic cavitation in the process of BAS extraction from plant raw materials with the most common extractants, such as water and ethanol solutions, were found. The values of the amplitude of the sound pressure of the extractant, which occurs under the conditions of the sound capillary effect directly at the entrance to the capillary, were also found. The dependences of the sound capillary pressure on the diameter of the capillary for the most common extractants have been established. The influence of the sound-capillary effect on the speed of movement of the most common extractants in capillaries of different sizes is determined. The obtained research results allow to quantitatively evaluate the influence of the sound-capillary effect on the movement of extractants in the capillaries of plant raw materials, on the rate of wetting of plant raw materials and the speed of mass exchange processes during extraction. These results can be used when choosing operating modes of existing and designing new equipment for the BAS extraction from plant raw materials under ultrasound conditions.

Effect of a textured surface on the occurrence and development of cavitation on the hydrofoil

An experimental study of the cavitation flow around the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 0012 hydrofoil with different surface morphology was carried out in this work. The surface morphology was set by modern laser ablation technology. The average values and intensity of vapor–gas cavities were determined. It has been revealed that laser texturing delays the emerging cavitation and somewhat decreases its intensity at higher cavitation numbers. A decrease in the cavitation number leads to an increase in its intensity for a smooth hydrofoil in comparison with a rough one, which is also expressed in an increase in the frequency of cavities. The paper presents a comparison of the flow regime with equal cavitation numbers, which clearly describes the features of the development of a vapor–gas cavity on the suction side of the foil with different surface morphologies. The paper provides an explanation of the reasons for the influence of surface morphology on the development of cavities.

Response characteristics of an insertion tensiometer investigated via the vacuum saturation method

Tensiometers are devices that can be used to monitor suction variation in landslides and slopes. The soil suction that can be measured with a conventional tensiometer is limited to 85 ∼ 90 kPa due to water cavitation in the tensiometer. This low measurement range of suction may be insufficient to interpret and determine the hydraulic properties of unsaturated soil, especially in semihumid and semiarid climate regions. However, in most geotechnical engineering studies, conventional tensiometers are still utilized. Although several types of high-suction tensiometers have been developed in recent decades, high suction measurements are difficult in the field because the saturation procedures for these tensiometers are complex and time consuming. Hence, the development of a simple and rapid saturation method is necessary to support their application. The vacuum saturation technique is a simple and reliable technique for saturating the porous ceramic cup of a tensiometer. However, if a high-suction tensiometer is saturated via a vacuum syringe, the measurable maximum suction is usually<200 kPa, which limits the application of tensiometers in geotechnical engineering. In this paper, we proposed a simple saturation device and a saturation method (the vacuum cylinder saturation method, VCSM) to saturate high-suction tensiometers. Soil column experiments were conducted to investigate the advantages of the VCSM and the response characteristics of insertion tensiometers. The results indicated that high-suction tensiometers could easily and steadily measure a maximum suction of 350 kPa if saturated via the VCSM. The VCSM could effectively prevent or retard the occurrence of cavitation due to the high vacuum pressure and slow progress of water filling in the tensiometer shaft. In addition, the response curve of insertion tensiometers could be divided into three stages: installing disturbance stage, delayed response stage and equilibrium stage. The extent of the disturbance caused by insertion tensiometer installation is a key factor influencing the delayed response characteristics of the tensiometer response curve. This paper also provides greater insight into the saturation method of tensiometers and the application of insertion tensiometers.