Sir John Kotelawala Defence University

Ratmalana

Pressure-driven cavitating flow of water

through a sharp-edged orifice
(Project report of computational fluid dynamics)

Name : TSD DE SILVA

Service no : 3746
Stream : Marine Engineering

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Chapter 1

1.1Aim
Identified the pressure-driven flow of water through a sharp-edged orifice and hence the
cavitation.

1.2 Introduction
Cavitation is the formation of gas bubbles of a flowing liquid in a region where the pressure
of the liquid falls below its vapor pressure.

This scenario can be highly visible in the marine engineering field. Marine craft propellers
always expose to the high pressure and high velocity. So it could lead to the high density of
cavitation region. Same time high pressure liquid lines such as fuel injectors which consist
with sharp edges also could be face to this phenomenon.

In this project, it describes the pressure-driven cavitation of water in a sharp edged orifice.

1.3 Problem
The problem considers the cavitation caused by the flow separation after a sharp-edged
orifice. The flow is pressure driven, with an inlet pressure of 5×105 Pa and an outlet
pressure of 9.5×104 Pa.

Geometrical parameters:

Orifice diameter = 4 × 10-3 m D- inlet diameter

D/d = 2.88 d - orifice diameter
L/r =8 L - orifice length

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Chapter 2- Setup and solution

2.1 Grid
 Draw the orifice in Auto-cad according to the given data.

 Export “.iges” file in Auto-cad.

 Import Auto-cad iges file to GAMBIT.

 After imported to GAMBIT, wire frame should be created.

The orifice inlet should not be selected as a face.

 Create the mesh from GAMBIT.

In here, the orifice inlet edge should be meshed by “mesh edges” option and then all the
faces should be meshed by “mesh faces” option after changing the spacing as “0.01”.

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 After creating the mesh, boundary conditions should be specified using “specify boundary
types” option as follows.

 Export “mesh” file.

 Import mesh file to the Fluent and run the simulation.

 Check the grid.

 Check the grid scale and retain the default values.

 Display the grid and retain default settings.

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2.2 Models

 Specify an axisymmetric model

Select Axisymmetric from the Space list
and retain the other default settings.

 Enable the multiphase mixture model.

Select Mixture from the Model list and then The

Multiphase model panel will expand.

Disable the Slip Velocity option in the Mixture

Parameters.
In this flow, the high level of turbulence does not allow
large bubble growth, so gravity is not important.
Therefore, there is no need to solve for the slip velocity.

 Enable the standard k-ɛ turbulence model with standard wall functions.

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2.3 Materials

 Create a new material to be used for the primary phase.

Name- water
Density- 1000 kg/m3
Viscosity- 0.001 kg/m-s
Click Change/Create

 Copy water vapor from the materials database and modify its properties.

Click the “Fluent Database’ button to open the Fluent Database Materials panel.

Select water-vapor (H2O) from the Fluent Fluid Materials selection list.

Click Copy to include water vapor in your model.

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 Change the density and viscosity.

Density- 0.02558 kg/m3

Viscosity- 1.26e-06 kg/m-s

Click change/create.

2.4 Phases
 Specify liquid water as the primary phase.

Select phase-1 from the Phase selection list and click

“set”.

Enter the name as liquid on the primary phase panel

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 Specify water vapor as the secondary phase.

Select phase-2 from the Phase selection list and Click

“Set” to open the Secondary Phase panel.

Enter vapor for Name and Select water-vapor from the

Phase Material drop-down list.

 Open the “Phase Interaction” panel by clicking the “Interaction” button, in order to enable
cavitation for the model.

Enable the Cavitation option in

the mass tab.

Vaporization Pressure = 3540 Pa

The vaporization pressure is a

property of the working liquid,
which depends mainly on the
liquid temperature.

2.5 Operating conditions

 Set the operating pressure.

Operating Pressure = 0 Pa

2.6 Boundary conditions

For the multiphase mixture model, conditions for the mixture will be specified. (i.e.,
conditions that apply to all phases) and also conditions that are specific to the primary and
secondary phases. In here boundary conditions are only needed for the mixture
and secondary phase of two boundaries, the pressure inlet and the pressure outlet.
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 Select inlet 1 from the Zone selection list.

Click “Set” to open the “Pressure Inlet” panel.

Gauge Total Pressure = 500000 Pa

Supersonic/Initial Gauge Pressure= 449000 Pa

Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from

the Specification Method.

Turbulent Intensity = 2 %
Hydraulic Diameter = 0.004 m

 Set the boundary conditions at inlet-1 for the secondary phase.

Inlet-1 is selected in the Zone selection
list.
Select vapor from the Phase drop-down
list.
Click “Set” to open the Pressure Inlet
panel.
Click the Multiphase tab and retain the
default value of 0 for Volume Fraction.

 Set the boundary conditions at outlet for the mixture.

Select outlet from the Zone selection list

Then mixture should be selected in the Phase drop-down list.
Click “Set” to open the Pressure Outlet panel.

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 Gauge Pressure = 95000 Pa

Select Intensity and Hydraulic

Diameter from the Specification
Method in the Turbulence group.

Back flow Turbulent

Intensity =2%

Back flow Hydraulic

Diameter = 0.001 m

 Set the boundary conditions at outlet for the secondary phase.

Outlet should be selected from the Zone

selection list.

Select vapor from the Phase drop-down

list.

Click “Set” to open the Pressure Outlet

panel.

Click the Multiphase tab and retain the

default value of 0 for Volume fraction.

2.7 Solution

 Set the solution parameters.

Select SIMPLEC from the Pressure-
Velocity Coupling.

Pressure = 0.4 (Under-Relaxation)

Momentum = 0.4
Vaporization Mass = 1

Turbulent Kinetic Energy

Turbulent Dissipation Rate 0.5
Turbulent viscosity

Select “Linear” from the Pressure

drop-down list in the Discretization
group box.

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 Enable the plotting of residuals during the calculation.

Enable Plot in the Options group box.

Enter 1e-05 for the Absolute Criteria of all

the residuals except vf-vapor.
(Decreasing the criteria for these residuals
will improve the accuracy of the solution.)

 Initialize the solution from either of the pressure inlet zones (inlet 1 or inlet 2).

Select inlet 1 or inlet 2 from the Compute From

drop-down list.

Select Absolute from the Reference Frame list.

Click “Init” to initialize the solution.

 Save the data file.

2.8 Post-processing
 Plot the pressure in the orifice.

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 Enable “Filled” in the Options.

Retain the default selection of “Pressure”

and “Static Pressure” from the Contours
of list.

Click “Display”.

Contours of Static Pressure (mixture) (Pascal)

Close-up view of velocity vectors

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Chapter 3- Conclusion

In this project report, it describes how to set up and resolve a strongly cavitating pressure-
driven flow through an orifice, using GAMBIT and FLUENT's multiphase mixture model
with cavitation effects.

Cavitation often occurs in control valves, pumps, propellers, impellers and it’s often
employed in ultrasonic cleaning baths.

According to the results of this project, to minimize the cavitation, orifices should be
designed by avoiding the sharp edges where the liquid flows. Since Cavitation is not a
phenomenon which designer can restrict or avoid, it should be minimize to get the maximum
usage and the life time of the orifices.

When we consider about the higher accuracy of this problem, more accurate solution can be
obtain by using an appropriate higher-order discretization scheme and by adapting the grid.

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