Air emission into a water shear layer through porous media. Part 2: Cavitation induced pressure attenuation
- Pennsylvania State Univ., State College, PA (United States). Applied Research Laboratory
Cavitation near the casing of a hydroturbine can lead to damage through both cavitation erosion and mechanical vibration of the casing and the associated piping. Cavitation erosion results from the collapse of cavitation bubbles on or near a surface such as the casing wall. Mechanical vibrations transmitted to the casing directly through the collapse of bubbles on the casing wall indirectly through a coupling of the acoustic pressure pulse due to a nearby collapse on the turbine blade. Air emission along the casing can reduce the intensity of the tip vortex and the gap cavitation through ventilation of the cavity. Reduction in the machinery vibration is obtained by reduction of the intensity of cavitation bubble collapse and attenuation and scattering of the radiated acoustic pressure. This requires a bubble layer which may be introduced in the vicinity of the turbine blade tips. This layer remains for some distance downstream of the blades and is effective for attenuation of tip vortex induced noise and blade surface cavitation noise. For the purpose of characterizing this bubble layer within a water pipe, the authors spanned a pipe with a two dimensional hydrofoil and emitted air through porous media (20 and 100 micron porosity sintered stainless steel) into the shear flow over the hydrofoil. This paper is limited to an investigation of the attenuation of acoustic pressure propagating to the casing rather than the reduction in acoustic source level due to collapse cushioning effects.
- OSTI ID:
- 100925
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940659--; ISBN 0-7918-1373-8
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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