Discrete vapour cavity model with efficient and accurate convolution type unsteady friction term

Abstract

This paper presents experimental data and numerical simulations of transient vaporous cavitation events generated by a downstream fast valve closure in a pipeline. The experimental apparatus comprises a 37.2 m long constant-sloping pipe of 22.1 mm internal diameter connecting two pressurized tanks. The simulation results show that improper selection of the weighting function in the convolution-based unsteady friction term in the discrete vapour cavity model (DVCM) may significantly attenuate some measured high-frequency pressure pulses and speed-up the timing of the main pressure pulses.