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.