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 Aim
To identify cavitation and its applications in daily life
 OVERVIEW
We generally think of bubbles as benign and harmless and yet they can
manifest the most remarkable range of physical effects. Some of those
effects are the stuff of our everyday experience as in the tinkling of a
brook or the sounds of breaking waves at the beach. But even these
mundane effects are examples of the ability of bubbles to gather, focus and
radiate energy (acoustic energy in the above examples). In other contexts
that focusing of energy can lead to serious technological problems as when
cavitation bubbles eat great holes through ships' propeller blades. In
liquid-propellant rocket engines, bubbles pose a danger to the stability of
the propulsion system, and in artificial heart valves they can cause serious
damage to the red blood cells. In perhaps the most extraordinary example
of energy focusing, collapsing cavitation bubbles can emit not only sound,
but also light with black body radiation temperatures equal to that of the
sun . But, harnessed carefully, this almost unique ability to focus energy
can also be put to remarkably constructive use. Cavitation bubbles are
now used in a remarkable range of surgical and medical procedures, for
example to emulsify tissue (most commonly in cataract surgery or in
lithotripsy procedures for the reduction of kidney and gallstones) or to
manipulate the DNA in individual cells. By creating cavitation bubbles
non-invasively thereby depositing and focusing energy non-intrusively,
one can generate minute incisions or target cancer cells.
 THEORY
What is cavitation ?
It is a process in which the liquid's static pressure falls below its vapour
pressure, resulting in the creation of small vapour-filled cavities in the liquid.
These cavities, known as "bubbles" or "voids," collapse under higher pressure
and can produce shock waves that can harm machinery. These shock waves are
powerful when they are close to the imploded bubble, but they weaken rapidly
as they travel away from it.
Cavitation is mainly divided into two, - inertial and non- inertial cavitation.

 Inertial cavitation -
The phenomenon of a void or bubble in a liquid rapidly collapsing
and creating a shock wave is known as the inertial cavitation. It
involves the creation of a low pressure bubble due to many factors
like electrical discharge for example, when the conditions that
created this bubble no longer exist, it bursts, and the surrounding
liquid’s inertia causes its temperature and pressure to rise rapidly.
The temperature of the vapour inside the bubble can be several
thousand kelvins, and the pressure several hundred atmospheres at
the point of complete collapse. So, the bursting bubble releases
enormous amounts of energy.

 Non inertial cavitation -

It occurs when small bubbles in a liquid are induced to oscillate in
the presence of an acoustic field when the amplitude of the
acoustic field is inadequate to induce complete bubble collapse.
This form of cavitation causes much less erosion than inertial
cavitation, and it's often used to clean fragile materials like silicon
wafers. We have focussed on inertial cavitation in this project.
Now, why is such a seemingly insignificant phenomenon like cavitation so
important to understand?
Let us start with the discovery of this phenomenon.
Discovery of cavitation ?
The phenomenon of cavitation was first recognized in 1885 during the sea trials
of HMS Daring when, due to the previously unmatched propeller speeds, it was
noted that cavities were being formed in the water and these were the source of
a great waste of power and the cause of other difficulties. Shortly thereafter, it
was found that these cavities were the cause of considerable pitting and erosion
of the propeller blades.
However, it was not until 1917 that Lord Rayleigh provided a partial
explanation by showing that great pressures could be generated during the
collapse of spherical vapour bubbles. The behavior of cavitation bubbles is non-
linear. In a typical solution, the bubble collapses to a size much smaller than its
original dimension, thus compressing whatever non-condensable gas might be
present in the bubble to very high pressures and temperatures.
So, energy is stored in the bubble/liquid system during the growth phase and is
released and focused during the collapse phase. It is this focusing of energy in
both space and time that produces some of the remarkable effects of cavitation
and allows it to be used for multiple purposes.
 PROCEDURE
What is cavitation?
But as we cannot observe the phenomenon of cavitation with our naked eyes,
and can just see the effects it has on machinery, or even living beings, we
seldom understand its role in our life. So, we first would like to undertake 2 at-
home experiments to show the existence of cavitation around us.

Experiment 1:
 Take 3 washed glass bottles.
 Uncap one bottle and hold it at the neck.
 Take the hammer and smack the mouth of the bottle hard in one go.
Experiment 2:
 Take some water in a vessel
 Bring it close to boiling.
 Pour this boiling water into a syringe.
 Seal the syringe with an airtight cover.
 Then pull it.
 OBSERVATION
Experiment 1:
 As we smack the mouth of the bottle with the hammer, the
force takes the bottle with it.
 But, the water tends to resist this force due to inertia.
 So, the bottle moves down, but the water stays at its
original position, creating an area of low pressure.
 This leads to formation of cavitation bubbles, which soon collapse.
 The energy created by the collapsing of bubbles gets
concentrated at a single point, leading to the breaking of bottle.

Experiment 2:
 As we pull the syringe, we can see the water boiling.
 This happens because of the low pressure created by pulling
the syringe.
 Such vapor bubbles created behind a moving object leave an
area of low pressure behind, and high pressure in the front.
 These bubbles are exactly the cavitation bubbles we are
talking about with respect to moving objects.
 APPLICATIONS
Cavitation is seen in amazingly different areas, like:
1. Mechanics
2. Biology

“Isn’t it surprising ?”

CAVITATION IN MECHANICS

1. Erosion of ship propellers

As a ship’s propeller rotates through the water at an angle of attack, a

pressure side and a suction side are created on each of the propeller’s
blades. The faster the blades cut through the water, the lower the pressure
on the suction side of the blades becomes. When the local pressure
decreases below the vapor pressure, water evaporates, a cavitation
bubble forms, grows larger and gets transported with the flow to a region
with a higher pressure. At this point the bubble stops growing and when
the local pressure exceeds the vapor pressure, vapor condenses starting
from the wall of the bubble. Eventually, the surface of the bubble starts
to break down in its weakest spot and the bubble implodes. During this
implosion, the water flows back into the space to fill the collapsed void
whereby pressure surges arise that can have orders of magnitude of
several hundred MPa. This process creates pressure waves with high
pressure peaks. If the vapor bubbles are in the vicinity or directly on top
of a solid wall surface, such as propeller blades, the implosion produces a
liquid microjet, which exerts high stresses onto the surface. The sudden
release of energy causes pressure loads on the surface, which create
crater-shaped material erosion in the propeller blades.
 2. Erosion of industrial valves

Cavitation in control valves occurs only with liquid media, and the
principal factors are fluid velocity and pressure drop. Flashing in control
valves occurs when the fluid running through it turns into vapor in the
control valve. Vapor bubbles will form if the liquid’s upstream pressure
suddenly drops below its vapor pressure as it flows through the
valve. Cavitation is the collapsing of these vapor bubbles as the pressure
recovers downstream of the valve’s trim outlet.
 3. Spillway dams

Cavitation damage occurs on concrete surface when discontinuity or

irregularities are encountered in the path of high velocity water flow.
This discontinuity or irregularity in the flow path causes the water to lift
off the flow surface, creating negative pressure zones and resulting
bubbles of water vapor. These bubbles travel downstream and collapse. If
the bubbles collapse against a concrete surface, it sends a very high
pressure impact over an infinitely small area of the surface. Such high
pressure impacts can remove particles of concrete, forming another
discontinuity which then creates more extensive cavitation damage.
Cavitation damage to concrete structure surface is most common in case
of spillway in dams.
 4. Diesel engines

Cavitation damage of diesel engine cylinder liners is due to vibration of

the cylinder wall, initiated by slap of the piston under the combined
forces of inertia and firing pressure as it passes top dead center. The
occurrence on the anti-thrust side may possibly result from bouncing of
the piston.

5. Hydrodyanamic cavitation

Hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is a process in which high energy is

released in a flowing liquid upon bubble implosion due to decrease and
subsequent increase in local pressure.
The liquids in the reservoir are pumped to the Venturi section, cavitation
phenomenon occurs in the diffusion part of the Venturi, and then, the
liquids are sent back to the reservoir. The above process will continue for
a period of time until the satisfactory treatment effect is obtained.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Worlds largest eruption of sound due to cavitation:
https://mobile.twitter.com/rainmaker1973/status/1394223667488256003

2) Coastal erosions (one of the factor is cavitation):

https://www.tutor2u.net/geography/reference/coastal-systems-processes-of-
weathering-and-erosion

3) Limitations of maximum speed of fishes :

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13553-dolphins-swim-so-fast-it-
hurts/#:~:text=Tuna%20have%20been%20known%20to,tail%2C%20causing%
20it%20to%20stall.

4) www.youtube.com
 CONCLUSION
Thus, with the help of at-home experiments, we understood the complex
phenomenon of cavitation in a simple understandable manner and learnt about
its drawbacks as well as applications in varied areas of science.