High-Speed Observations of Highly Erosive Vortex Cavitation around Butterfly Valve

Abstract

In order to clarify the mechanism of the severe erosion mainly resulting from the singular vortex cavitation, we carefully observe the vortex cavitation associated with the erosion around a butterfly valve by means of a high-speed video camera, whose framing rate is 40500 per second. The velocity of cavitating flow is measured by the digital-image processing technique. It is worth noting that the vortex cavitation develops in the boundary region between the main flow region, i. e., the orifice-jet, and the recirculating region. The cavitating vortex core consists of several tiny vortex cavitations. The rotating velocity of the highly erosive vortex cavitation can also be determined by this technique.