Cavitation phenomenon

Cavitation phenomenon The phenomenon of air/gas release is very important in simulation of fluid system. In addition to this, there is a separate phenomenon called cavitation.

If the pressure of the fluid is reduced, at some point the fluid will boil, this phenomenon is called cavitation. This occurs when the pressure reaches the saturated vapor pressure. Normally the fluid is not chemically pure and hence this boiling occurs over a range of pressures. We will refer to the pressure at which cavitation starts as PHvap and the pressure at which it is complete as PLvap.

Figure 2: Comparison between “boiling” and “cavitation” phenomena

In HYD, we assume that all the air/gas is free when the pressure drops below PHvap. Therefore, air/gas release and cavitation are distinct phenomena with respect to the pressure.