Combined Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Cavitation Erosion Process

We are comparing results of numerical simulations against high-speed simultaneous observations of cavitation and cavitation erosion. We performed fully compressible, cavitating flow simulations to resolve the formation of the shock waves at cloud collapse—these are believed to be directly related to the formation of the damage. Good agreements were noticed between calculations and tests. Two high pressure peaks were found during one cavitation cycle. One relates to the cavitation collapse and the other one corresponds to the cavitation shed off, both contributing to a distinctive stepwise erosion damage growth pattern. Additional, more precise, simulations with much shorter time step were performed to investigate the processes of cavitation collapse and shedding off in more detail. There the importance of small cavitation structures which collapse independently of the main cloud was found. The present work shows a great potential for future development of techniques for accurate predictions of cavitation erosion by numerical means only.