Attached sheet cavitation is usually observed in turbulent water flows within small laminar separation bubbles which can provide favorable conditions for inception and attachment of cavities. In the present study, viscous silicone oils are used within a small scale Venturi geometry to investigate attached cavitation into laminar separated flows for Reynolds numbers from 346 to 2188. Numerical simulations about single phase flows are performed with steady simulations for a Reynolds number range Re ∈ [50; 1400] and with unsteady simulations for Re ∈ [1000; 2000]. They reveal the emergence of two large laminar boundary layer separations downstream of the Venturi throat in addition to low pressure zones which can possibly induce both degassing or cavitation features. Experiments are performed with high-speed photography, and several multiphase dynamics are observed in these viscous flows, which are considered as quasisteady flows at low Reynolds numbers Re ≤ 1400. Degassing phenomenon with air bubble recirculation has been first observed at pressures far above liquid vapor pressure whereas typical attached cavities have been identified for low pressure conditions as “band” and “tadpole” cavities into the different separations of the laminar flows. For higher Reynolds numbers, a flow regime transition can be noticed in the wake of well-developed gas structures, characterized by wake instabilities, causing vortex cavitation above a critical Reynolds number associated with the bubble width $R{e}_c^b\simeq 616$ . This regime transition can possibly occur either quasicontinuously in the wake of an attached “band” vapor cavity or intermittently behind a recirculating air bubble generated with degassing. This last phenomenon is associated in our study to classical “patch” cavitation.

Cavitation is a phenomenon of classical interest which can be observed in various applications. It consists in a transition of phase due to a pressure drop under the saturation pressure of a liquid. The unsteady behavior of this phenomenon leads to generate some issues such as erosion, noise or vibrations: as a result the comprehension of the cavity dynamics remains of crucial importance. Unsteady cavitation has been investigated in numerous studies and a mechanism of re-entrant jet has been firstly identified as responsible of the cavity shedding process. Recently, a second shedding mechanism, induced by a shock wave propagation due to the condensation of vapor structures, has been experimentally highlighted with X-ray measurements [1]. The present paper focuses on the experimental detection, with a wavelet method, of these two shedding features on 2D image sequences recorded with a high-speed camera about a double transparent horizontal Venturi nozzle with 18°/8° convergent/divergent angles respectively. A compressible two-phase flow numerical 3D model is performed in complement in order to illustrate some phenomena hardly perceptible experimentally.

The present study focuses on the inception, the growth, and the potential unsteady dynamics of attached vapor cavities into laminar separation bubbles. A viscous silicon oil has been used in a Venturi geometry to explore the flow for Reynolds numbers ranging from $Re=800$ to $Re=2000$. Special care has been taken to extract the maximum amount of dissolved air. At the lowest Reynolds numbers the cavities are steady and grow regularly with decreasing ambient pressure. A transition takes place between $Re=1200$ and $Re=1400$ for which different dynamical regimes are identified: a steady regime for tiny cavities, a periodical regime of attached cavity shrinking characterized by a very small Strouhal number for cavities of intermediate sizes, the bursting of aperiodical cavitational vortices which further lower the pressure, and finally steady super-cavitating sheets observed at the lowest of pressures. The growth of the cavity with the decrease of the cavitation number also becomes steeper. This scenario is then well established and similar for Reynolds numbers between $Re=1400$ and $Re=2000$.

The phenomenon of slamming on a bubbly liquid has many occurrences in marine and costal engineering. However, experimental or numerical data on the effect of the presence of gas bubbles within the liquid on the impact loads are scarce and the related physical mechanisms are poorly understood. The aim of the present paper is to study numerically the relationship between the void volume fraction and the impact loads. For that purpose, numerical simulations of the impact of a cone on bubbly water have been performed using the finite element code ABAQUS/Explicit. The present results show the diminution of the impact loads with the increase of the void fraction. This effect appears to be related to the high compressibility of the liquid-gas mixture.

La cavitation hydrodynamique, et plus particulièrement la cavitation à poche attachée, peut apparaitre et se développer dans des écoulements turbulents complexes à l’intérieur de décollements de la couche limite laminaire. Ce phénomène s’avère être également sensible aux autres gaz présents dans l’écoulement comme l’air. Pour mieux comprendre l’attachement de poches de cavitation dans des décollements laminaires et l’influence de l’air sur celles-ci, nous proposons d’étudier des écoulements laminaires décollés d’huiles silicones visqueuses, contenant une grande quantité d’air, autour d’une géométrie Venturi lisse. Dans notre étude nous observons l’apparition de plusieurs types de poches, d’air ou de vapeur, qui peuvent s’attacher dans différents décollements de l’écoulement laminaire. Le dégazage joue alors un rôle important à hautes pressions, générant des poches d’air attachées présentant des dynamiques particulièrement intéressantes.À très basses pressions, des poches de cavitations peuvent s’attacher provoquantselon la stabilité de l’écoulement une transition à un régime transitionnel laminaire/turbulent dans leurs sillage. Cette même transition peut également apparaitre de façon intermittente à plus hautes pressions dans le sillage d’une bulle d’air recirculante, caractéristique du dégazage dans les écoulement laminaires décollés. Le régime transitionnel laminaire/turbulent, beaucoup moins sensible au dégazage, est caractérisé par de la cavitation de tourbillons, générés à hautes fréquences, dans le sillage d’un bulbe de décollement laminaire “court” le long de la pente du Venturi. Le bulbe se développe jusqu’à transitionner brutalement en bulbe “long” pour une taille de poche assez élevée, on peut associer ce phénomène à la supercavitation.