Computation of Shock Waves in Cavitating Flows

Realistic cavitating flows are dominated by a large number of interacting bubbles. These clouds of bubbles exhibit highly nonlinear behavior with sudden changes in void fraction. Because of the potential damage caused by the coherent collapse of bubble clouds, there is a need for effective numerical models to predict their behavior. This paper presents a newly developed computational methodology to solve a continuum model of bubbly cavitating flow in which a Lagrangian finite volume technique is used to accurately and efficiently track all flow variables in space and time. We also present results for the solution of a one-dimensional model problem, namely cavitating shock waves produced by the normal motion of a wall bounding a semi-infinite domain of fluid. The roles of wave steepening and damping mechanisms in the collapse of bubble clouds are highlighted.