High speed digital imaging of cavitating vortices

Abstract

 Researchers at the Cavitation and Multiphase Flow Laboratory of the University of Michigan worked in conjunction with Princeton Scientific Instruments (PSI) engineers to employ a new digital imaging system in the study of partial attached cavitation. The new high speed solid state system, the Princeton Scientific Ultra Fast Framing Camera (UFFC), was designed for cavitation studies where framing rates of 10⁵–10⁶ frames/s are required to image the detailed mechanisms of cavitating flows. The UFFC, which uses a PSI patented Charge Coupled Device (CCD) array image sensor, was designed to capture 30 frames at a maximum framing rate of 1 million frames/second. In these experiments, a maximum framing rate of 125000 frames per second (8 μs/frame) was used to examine cavitating vortices in the closure region of a partial attached cavity. The vortical structures in the closure region of the attached cavity were imaged, and the evolution and collapse of these flow structures were examined. Relationships between the cavitating vortices size, strength, and collapse time were observed.