Effects of nanoparticles on hydraulic cavitation

¹ Institute of Process Equipment, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, PR China
² Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, P. O. Box 118, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden

^* Corresponding author: qianjy@zju.edu.cn

Abstract

When liquids flowing through a throttling element, such as a perforated plate, the velocity increases and the pressure decreases. If the pressure is below the saturated vapor pressure, the liquid will vaporize into small bubbles, which is called hydraulic cavitation. In fact, vaporization nucleus is another crucial condition for vaporizing. The nanoparticles contained in the nanofluids play a significant role in vaporization of liquids. In this paper, the effects of the nanoparticles on hydraulic cavitation are investigated. Firstly, a geometric model of a pipe channel equipped with a perforated plate is established. Then with different nanoparticle volume fractions and diameters, the nanofluids flowing through the channel is numerically simulated based on a validated numerical method. The operation conditions, such as the temperature and the pressure ratio of inlet to outlet, are the considered variables. As a significant parameter, cavitation numbers under different operation conditions are achieved to investigate the effects of nanoparticles on hydraulic cavitation. Meanwhile, the contours are extracted to research the distribution of bubbles for further investigation. This study is of interests for researchers working on hydraulic cavitation or nanofluids.