Flow effect on cavitation bubble behaviors in narrow channel

Kawamura, Shunsuke; Naoe, Takashi   ; Tanaka, Nobuatsu*; Futakawa, Masatoshi  

In the mercury target for the pulsed spallation neutron source at J-PARC, cavitation damage at the beam window of the mercury target vessel is a key factor to decide lifetime of target because the damage degrade the vessel structural integrity. A double-walled structure with a narrow channel was adopted to the vessel for expecting to reduce cavitation damage. In this study, the cavitation bubble behaviors of the growth and collapse under water flow field were investigated to determine the effective factor for mitigating cavitation damage in narrow channel. We measured the equivalent diameter and wall vibration due to the cavitation bubble collapse with parametrically changing flow velocity. It was found that the maximum equivalent diameter of the cavitation bubble and the response vibrational acceleration of the wall are decreased with the increasing velocity. As the results, it was found that cavitation bubble collapse pressure was affected by flowing condition in the narrow channel.