Design and optimization of a cavitating device for Congo red decolorization: Experimental investigation and CFD simulation

The aim of this work is to perform design and optimization of a cavitating device based on CFD simulation. A set of operational and geometrical parameters such as convergence angle, divergence angle, length of throat, and inlet pressure that can affect the hydrodynamic cavitation phenomenon generating in a Venturi are evaluated through CFD simulation and experimental approaches. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to achieve the optimum geometrical configuration. The CFD results show that the maximum cavitation zone in the Venturi can be obtained when half angle of the convergence section, throat length and half angle of the divergence section are 22.7°, 4 mm, and 6.5°, respectively. A maximum decolorization of 38.8% has been obtained using the designed Venturi at cavitation number (Cv) of 0.12. Additionally, the results were compared to that of various orifice plates. A decolorization of 26.2% using 33 holes orifice plate and 11.55% in one hole orifice plate approved the superiority of the designed Venturi.     

Localization and quantification of radical production in cavitating flows with luminol chemiluminescent reactions

Hydrodynamic cavitation experiments in microfluidic systems have been performed with an aqueous solution of luminol as the working fluid. In order to identify where and how much reactive radical species are formed by the violent bubble collapse, the resulting chemiluminescent oxidation reaction of luminol was scrutinized downstream of a constriction in the microchannel. An original method was developed in order to map the intensity of chemiluminescence emitted from the micro-flow, allowing us to localize the region where radicals are produced. Time averaged void fraction measurements performed by laser induced fluorescence experiments were also used to determine the cavitation cloud position. The combination void fraction and chemiluminescence two-dimensional mapping demonstrated that the maximum chemiluminescent intensity area was found just downstream of the cavitation clouds. Furthermore, the radical yield can be obtained with our single photon counting technique. The maximum radical production rates of 1.2*10⁷ OH/s and radical production per processed liquid volume of 2.15*10¹⁰ HO/l were observed. The proposed technique allows for two-dimensional characterisation of radical production in the microfluidic flow and could be a quick, non-intrusive way to optimise hydrodynamic cavitation reactor design and operating parameters, leading to enhancements in wastewater treatments and other process intensifications.     

水下对转螺旋桨流致辐射噪声机理与预报方法*

水下对转螺旋桨流致辐射噪声的预报对于水下目标的特征提取和分类识别具有重要意义。由桨叶的旋转引起的湍流场是水下对转螺旋桨流致辐射噪声的源场。分述了水下对转螺旋桨湍流边界层脉动、旋转干涉效应和空化效应引发的水动力噪声机制和研究进展,比较了目前工程应用中的3种对转螺旋桨流致辐射噪声预报方法的特点。在分析对转螺旋桨流致辐射噪声数值预报难点的基础上,综述了对转螺旋桨流致辐射噪声计算方法的研究进展,指出间接数值模拟方法是工程中进行对转螺旋桨流致辐射噪声预报的有效方法。     

Investigation of ammonia stripping with a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor

Ammonia is a commonly used compound in the domestic and industrial fields. If ammonia found in wastewater after use is not treated, even at low concentrations it may cause toxic effects in the receiving environment. In this study, a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor (HDC) was designed with the aim of removing ammonia. The effect of parameters like different cavitation numbers, airflow, temperature and initial concentration on NH₃ removal was researched. The potential of hydrodynamic cavitation for removal of volatile gases, like NH₃, was assessed with the aid of two film theory mathematical equations. Experimental studies were performed at fixed pH = 11. Under the conditions of 0.12 cavitation number, 25 L/min airflow, 30 °C temperature and 2500 mg/L initial concentration, in 24 h 98.4% NH₃ removal efficiency was achieved. With the same experimental conditions without any air, the HDC reactor provided 89.5% NH₃ removal at the end of 24 h.The HDC reactor is very effective for the removal of volatile gases from wastewater and it was concluded that even in the absence of aeration, the desired NH₃ removal efficiency was provided.     

Statistical structure of the velocity field in cavitating flow around a 2D hydrofoil

Transformation of flow turbulence structure with cavitation occurrence, determination of the flow conditions favorable for nucleation of cavitation bubbles, influence of the statistical structure of turbulence on this process and the inverse effect of cavitation on the flow dynamics are challenging problems in modern fluid mechanics. The paper reports on the results of statistical processing of the velocity fields measured by a PIV technique in cavitating flow over a 2D symmetric hydrofoil for four flow conditions, starting from a cavitation-free regime and finishing by unsteady cloud cavitation. We analyze basic information on the statistical structure of velocity fluctuations in the form of histograms and Q-Q diagrams along with profiles of the mean velocity and turbulent kinetic energy. The research reveals that the flow turbulence pattern and distributions of turbulent fluctuations change significantly with the cavitation development. Under unsteady cloud cavitation conditions, the probability density function of the fluctuating velocity has a two-mode distribution, which indicates switching of two alternating flow conditions in a region above the hydrofoil aft part due to periodic passing of cavitation clouds. Behaviors of the mean and most probable velocities unexpectedly appear to be different with a monotonous increase of the incoming flow velocity. This finding must be caused by modification of the skewness coefficient of the fluctuating velocity.     

主动射流控制水翼空化的数值模拟与分析

为了改善高速流动工况下水翼吸力面上流场的空化特性,提出了水翼表面主动射流对绕水翼周围流动加以控制的方法.基于密度分域滤波的FBDCM混合湍流模型联合Zwart-Gerber-Belamri空化模型,分析了来流空化数为0.83,来流攻角为8°,射流位置距水翼前缘为x=0.19c时,主动射流对于水翼吸力面上流动的空化特性和水动力特性影响.对回射流的强度进行了量化分析,以探究回射流与流场空化特性的关系.数值分析结果表明,在射流水翼吸力面上的时均空泡体积为原始水翼的1/15,使得流场内空化流动由云空化状态转变为较为稳定的片空化状态,显著地削弱了云空化的发展.此外,射流极大地改善了水翼的水动力性能,使得水翼的升阻比较原始水翼提高了22.9%,空泡的脱落频率减少了26.2%,空泡脱落所引起的振幅减小了9.1%.射流大幅降低了水翼吸力面上低压区面积,水翼吸力面上流体的逆向压力减小,回射流强度降低;同时,射流使水翼吸力面上的边界层减薄,增强了流动的抗逆压梯度能力,一定程度上阻挡了回射流向水翼前缘的流动,这也从机理上分析了主动射流抑制空化的原因.      

Synergistic effects of the alternating application of low and high frequency ultrasound for particle synthesis in microreactors

Ultrasound (US) is a promising method to address clogging and mixing issues in microreactors (MR). So far, low frequency US (LFUS), pulsed LFUS and high frequency US (HFUS) have been used independently in MR for particle synthesis to achieve narrow particle size distributions (PSD). In this work, we critically assess the advantages and disadvantages of each US application method for the case study of calcium carbonate synthesis in an ultrasonic microreactor (USMR) setup operating at both LFUS (61.7 kHz, 8 W) and HFUS (1.24 MHz, 1.6 W). Furthermore, we have developed a novel approach to switch between LFUS and HFUS in an alternating manner, allowing us to quantify the synergistic effect of performing particle synthesis under two different US conditions. The reactor was fabricated by gluing a piezoelectric plate transducer to a silicon microfluidic chip. The results show that independently applying HFUS and LFUS produces a narrower PSD compared to silent conditions. However, at lower flow rates HFUS leads to agglomerate formation, while the reaction conversion is not enhanced due to weak mixing effects. LFUS on the other hand eliminates particle agglomerates and increases the conversion due to the strong cavitation effect. However, the required larger power input leads to a steep temperature rise in the reactor and the risk of reactor damage for long-term operation. While pulsed LFUS reduces the temperature rise, this application mode leads again to the formation of particle agglomerates, especially at low LFUS percentage. The proposed application mode of switching between LFUS and HFUS is proven to combine the advantages of both LFUS and HFUS, and results in particles with a unimodal narrow PSD (one order of magnitude reduction in the average size and span compared to silent conditions) and negligible rise of the reactor temperature.     

Degradation of chitosan with self-resonating cavitation

For the degradation of chitosan, a novel physical method of self-resonating cavitation with strong cavitation effects was investigated in this paper. The effects of initial concentration, pH, temperature, inlet pressure and cavitation time on the degradation efficiency of chitosan were evaluated. It was found that the degradation efficiency was positively correlated with temperature and cavitation time, but was negatively correlated with the solution concentration. The degradation efficiency was maximized at pH of 4.4 and inlet pressure of 0.4 MPa. Under the experimental conditions, the intrinsic viscosity of chitosan solution was reduced by 92.2%, which was twice as high as the degradation efficiency where a Venturi tube cavitator was used. The viscosity-average molecular weights of initial and degraded chitosan were 651 and 104 kD, respectively. The deacetylation degree of chitosan slightly decreased from 89.34% to 88.05%. Structures and polydispersity of initial and degraded chitosan were measured by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance hydrogen spectroscopy (¹H NMR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The results showed that the degradation process did not change the natural structure of chitosan. XRD peaks of the original chitosan were observed at 2θ of 9.59° and 20.00°, and the one at 2θ of 20.00° was obviously weakened after the degradation process, which indicated that the crystallinity of chitosan decreased significantly after the degradation. The polydispersity index of chitosan samples decreased from 3.17 to 2.75, indicating that the molecular-weight distribution of products after the degradation was more concentrated. The results proved that self-resonating cavitation prompted the degradation of chitosan and could reduce the polydispersity of the products for the production of oligochitosan with homogeneous molecular weights.     

Computation of hydrodynamic mass and damping coefficients for a cavitating marine propeller flow using a panel method

The present paper deals with the numerical calculation of hydrodynamic mass and damping coefficients under consideration of unsteady sheet cavitation on marine propeller flows. In the first part of the paper, the mathematical and numerical background behind the numerical method is introduced. The numerical calculations carried out in this work are based on a low-order panel method. Panel methods belong to the class of collocation techniques and are applied to obtain a numerical solution of a potential flow based system of boundary integral equations. They are suitable for the present application because of their short computation time which makes them applicable in the design process of marine propellers.Additionally, two different approaches for the determination of hydrodynamic masses and damping are introduced in this work. The hydrodynamic masses and damping are important in studies of the ship motion in seaway and in the analysis of vibrations of a vessel and its appendages. The developed approaches are applied on a propeller flow in heave motion. Hereby, the calculations are performed for a non-rotating and rotating propeller under non-cavitating and cavitating conditions. The results obtained from the simulations are discussed in detail and an outlook is given.     

通气法控制超空泡流动的实验研究

在高速水洞中运用人工通气方法进行了航行体模型超空泡形态特性的系列实验研究.获得了不同通气流量、不同空化数和不同弗鲁德数下的空泡形态,建立了以弗鲁德数为参数的空泡几何特征参数与空化数的对应关系、空化数与通气流量系数之间的对应关系.验证了空化数是决定空泡尺度的主要无因次参数,通过改变通气流量可以有效地调控空化数,进而达到控制空泡形态的目的.文中同时给出了通气流量系数的实验曲线拟合公式,并与国外的相关实验和公式进行了比较,两者基本一致.所得结论对进一步的水下超高速航行体空泡形态控制技术研究具有参考价值.