Study on Unsteady Cavitation Flow and Pressure Pulsation Characteristics in the Regulating Valve

A combined numerical-experiment investigation on the unsteady cavitation flow and pressure fluctuation characteristics in the regulating valves is conducted in this paper. The cavitation flow in the regulating valve is an unsteady and periodic flow which could be divided into fixed and travelling cavitation bubbles. The fixed cavitation bubbles are formed in the gap in the initial stage and then fell off and formed the travelling cavitation bubbles because of the re-entrant jet. The travelling cavitation bubbles move downstream, oscillate, and break up into several smaller bubbles. Changes in the length/radius ratio (L/R0) of the valve spool is an important factor affecting unsteady cavitation flow and pressure pulsation characteristics in the regulating valve. The length of travelling cavitation bubbles increases firstly and then decreases with increasing time. With the increase of the length/radius ratio (L/R0), the oscillation period of cavitation bubbles also increases. In the initial stage of cavitation bubbles, the velocity distribution inside the regulating valve is relatively stable, and no re-entrant jet could be found although L/R0 is different. In the collapse stage of cavitation bubbles, the velocity distribution becomes extremely unstable because the collapsing cavitation bubbles affect the pressure drop and velocity field in the flow channel. Furthermore, the amplitude of pressure pulsation increases gradually, and the peak time of the pressure pulsation is gradually delayed while increasing the length/diameter ratio.