NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF CAVITATING FLOW IN A HORIZONTAL CONVERGING-DIVERGING NOZZLE

The objective of this paper is to investigate the dynamic evolution of cavitating flow in a horizontal converging-diverging Venturi nozzle. A nonlinear continuum bubbly mixture model coupled with the dynamics equation of the bubble is used to investigate the effects of the throat dimension of converging-diverging nozzle. Equation set is numerically resolved by the use of a fourth order Runge-Kutta scheme. The numerical resolution of the previous equations set let us found that the bubble radius distribution, fluid velocity and fluid pressure change dramatically with the throat length of the Venturi and an instability appeared just after the passing the converging nozzle for an throat length greater than 4.2 cm which correspond to the critical bubble radius R-c= 6.85. Also, we found that, the throat dimension of converging diverging nozzle has strongly affected the bubble frequency and the characteristics of the flow.