Synchrotron ultra-fast X-ray imaging of a cavitating flow in a Venturi profile

Cavitation consists of successive vaporization and condensation processes in a liquid flow, due to a large pressure decrease usually associated with sudden flow acceleration. This phenomenon occurs typically in pumps and naval propellers, on the blades’ suction side and/or in periphery of the rotor. It is associated with performance decrease, blade erosion, vibrations that may lead to damage, and noise due to vapor collapse close to the solid walls. Therefore, a general understanding of the mechanisms that govern flow vaporization and condensation is of the utmost importance to reduce or at least to control these effects. A major issue is to estimate velocity fields in both phases, i.e. liquid and vapor. These combined measurements are missing in the literature. We propose a method of ultra-fast X-ray imaging to cope this lack. This method is based on X-ray absorption and phase-contrast enhancement. This technique can simultaneously measure the flow velocities of both liquid and vapor phases at kHz frequency. For the X-ray measurements, a dedicated Venturi shape canal has been designed for the experiments. The design is based on a known two-phase flows hydraulic set-up. The studied cavitation occurs downstream from the Venturi profile. The experiments were carried out at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. These experiments have confirmed the advantages of ultra-fast X-ray imaging for the visualization of liquid–vapor interfaces. Also, the feasibility of estimating velocity field in the flow is acknowledged.