CAVITATION SUSCEPTIBILITY OF OCEAN AND LABORATORY WATER

Experiments have been carried out in laboratories to relate cavitation inception and nuclei distributions. The existence of a strong relationship between cavitation and nuclei has been documented for laboratory waters, but little information is available about ocean waters. Towards this end, ocean measurements were carried out in Exuma Sound and the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida to provide comparative results in different bodies of water. The test program included cavitation susceptibility measurements by a venturi system, nuclei population measurements by a light scattering device, and a series of standard oceanographic measurements. The depths ranged from 10-200m, deeper than ever before for these types of measurements. To provide a reference for comparison between laboratory and natural waters, the same measuring devices were used in a 12in variable pressure water tunnel. There was no difficulty inducing cavitation throughout the test matrix. St depths less than 100m, the water in the Gulf Stream cavitated more easily than the water in Exuma Sound. At deeper depths, the opposite trend was found. The bubble concentrations and tensile strengths at cavitation inception were compared with data obtained by other investigators in other parts of the ocean. Bubble instability theory and the Rayleigh-Plesset dynamic equation provide good explanations of many of the observed phenomena. The postulate of a critical bubble radius is used to explain the unexpected phenomenon that the concentration of bubbles that may cavitate could increase with depth.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Proceedings of the 21st American Towing Tank Conference, held at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 5-7 Aug. 1986, p. 439 [11 pp., 17 ref., 6 tab., 14 fig.]
• Authors:
  • Shen, Y T
  • Gowing, S
• Publication Date: 1986

Language

• English

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cavitation (Mechanics)
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00693567
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: British Maritime Technology
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 14 1995 12:00AM