VOF: Cavitation
This tutorial demonstrates how to set up a cavitation problem in Simcenter STAR-CCM+. It simulates a two-dimensional forced flow of water through a nozzle and into an air-filled chamber at atmospheric pressure.
The mesh that is used (shown below) is the same as in VOF: Gravity-Driven Flow except that, in this instance, the physical dimensions of the problem are scaled down by a factor of 1,000. Therefore, the nozzle width is about 1 mm. The boundary on the left of the problem geometry has a prescribed pressure of 5 x 107 Pa and the boundary on the right is at atmospheric pressure. The boundary at the bottom is a symmetry plane and all other boundaries are solid walls.
Initially, the left chamber is filled with water and the remainder of the solution domain is filled with air. Turbulence is modeled using the default K-Epsilon model. The sharp corner at the entrance to the narrow nozzle combined with the flow acceleration produces a low-pressure region in which cavitation takes place.
