Transient vaporous cavitation in a horizontal copper pipe

This research focuses on the analysis of transient cavitating flow in a horizontal copper pipe. Experiments have been conducted in a reservoir-pipe-valve copper pipe-rig to collect transient pressure data with and without cavitation. A hydraulic transient solver incorporating unsteady friction losses and distributed cavitation flow (discrete gas cavity model) has been developed. The system behaviour and the obtained transient pressure signal have been compared with the experimental results for sloping pipes reported in previous studies and a good agreement has been observed. Numerical results are compared with collected data and effects related to the unsteady friction losses and to the occurrence of transient vapour pressures are discussed.