Experimental and numerical investigations on spray structure under the effect of cavitation phenomenon in a microchannel

In this study, the effect of upstream pressure on cavitation flows inside a microchannel with an inner diameter of 152 μm and resulting spray structure were experimentally and numerically investigated. The effects of bubble number density on two-phase flow hydrodynamics were studied using the numerical approach, where transient model was utilized to obtain the changes in vapor quality inside the microchannel and velocity field near the inlet and outlet of the nozzle. Spray visualization was carried out at a distance of 4.5 mm from the tip of the microchannel using the high speed visualization system. The experimental results showed that the spray cone angle increased with upstream pressure, and beyond the upstream pressure of 50 bar, the liquid jet flow changed to the cloudy spray flow. The bubble collapse was recorded at upstream pressures of 100 and 120 bar, where the cavitation bubbles extended to the outlet of the microchannel, and their collapse took place around the spray.