Slip velocity and field information of two-phase cavitating flows

In this work, laser-induced florescent particle image velocimetry was performed to measure simultaneously the liquid and vapor velocity fields at the mid-span of a small-scale Venturi type section to determine the presence of a slip velocity between the phases. Various dynamic behavior and Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability involved in the cloud cavity shedding regime are discussed at four different cavitation numbers. The velocity, vorticity, and turbulence field information of the two phases are analyzed. The liquid-vapor mixture in a cavitating flow is usually considered a homogeneous medium in currently used computational models, but it is shown in this study that the two phases have very different dynamics. The measurements of the time-averaged velocities highlight the existence of a noteworthy slippage between the liquid and the vapor phases, especially in the upstream part of the cavitation region, where the slippage between the two phases can reach about 50% of the liquid velocity. Using phase-locked average, it is shown that the slip velocity in the upstream region is mainly located at the upper liquid-vapor interface, while the slip velocity in the closure area is near the bottom wall, due to the reentrant jet. These results contradict a primary assumption of the current models, where the medium is usually considered as a homogeneous mixture with a unique velocity field, thus providing a reference for future computational model improvement.