Measurement of Honeycomb Turbulence in a Cavitation Tunnel Using Particle Image Velocimetry Method

The two dimensional PIV (particle image velocimetry) measurement technique is applied to water flow in a narrow cavitation tunnel. The nearly homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flows are generated by the honeycomb installed in the tunnel and visualized with a PIV technique. The velocities in the measurement plane at the tunnel centerline 184cm downward from the honeycomb were measured and calculated by an image correlation technique. The turbulent properties are evaluated and each term in the turbulent kinetic energy equation is calculated for the conditions with different internal pressures. Lowering the internal pressure gives an effect on the turbulent flow due to growing bubbles which are resolved in the water. The turbulent kinetic energy in the measurement plane is decayed much slower than those of other research results carried out with wind tunnels. With decreasing the tunnel internal pressures the turbulent intensities are increased about 1.5 times and the anisotropic tendency is also increased.