A Review on the Erosion Mechanism in Cavitating Jets and Their Industrial Applications

Cavitating jets have been widely studied for over a century, but despite the extensive literature on this subject, the implementation of cavitating jets in many industries is still very limited due to technical challenges. The main purpose of the present paper is to provide recommendations on using the cavitating jets based on a comprehensive literature review on the erosion mechanism in these jets. Self-resonating jets are extensively discussed in the present paper due to their importance in amplifying the erosion effect of cavitating jets. The influence of different jet nozzle geometric parameters and the operating conditions of the cavitating jet flow on the erosion mechanism is also discussed. Finally, well drilling in addition to multiple other industrial applications of cavitating jets are examined.

Cavitating Jet: A Review

When a high-speed water jet is injected into water through a nozzle, cavitation is generated in the nozzle and/or shear layer around the jet. A jet with cavitation is called a “cavitating jet”. When the cavitating jet is injected into a surface, cavitation is collapsed, producing impacts. Although cavitation impacts are harmful to hydraulic machinery, impacts produced by cavitating jets are utilized for cleaning, drilling and cavitation peening, which is a mechanical surface treatment to improve the fatigue strength of metallic materials in the same way as shot peening. When a cavitating jet is optimized, the peening intensity of the cavitating jet is larger than that of water jet peening, in which water column impacts are used. In order to optimize the cavitating jet, an understanding of the instabilities of the cavitating jet is required. In the present review, the unsteady behavior of vortex cavitation is visualized, and key parameters such as injection pressure, cavitation number and sound velocity in cavitating flow field are discussed, then the estimation methods of the aggressive intensity of the jet are summarized.

Study and analysis of the cavitating and non-cavitating jets - Part one: Parameters controlling force, power and the jet behavior

This paper presents the dependency of the jet power and the cavitation intensity on the working conditions of the cavitating and non-cavitating jet flow. This dependency is indicated by the cavitation erosion process and flow structure. The effects of working conditions on the cavitation erosion were experimentally investigated. The flow visualization was done using a high-speed photography recording system. The analysis shows that the erosion rate calculation and the visualization of the jet structure can be used as tools to estimate the jet strength, the jet actions, the jet power, and the performance of the jetting system.