Numerical simulation of bubble flow interactions

Bubble flow interaction can be important in many practical engineering applications. For instance, cavitation is a problem of interaction between nuclei and local pressure field variations including turbulent oscillations and large scale pressure variations. Various types of behaviours fundamentally depend on the relative sizes of the nuclei and the length scales of the pressure variations as well as the relative importance of bubble natural periods of oscillation and the characteristic time of the field pressure variations. Similarly, bubbles can significantly affect the performance of lifting devices or propulsors. We present here some fundamental numerical studies of bubble dynamics and deformation, then a practical method using a multi-bubble Surface Averaged Pressure (DF-Multi-SAP©) to simulate cavitation inception and scaling, and connect this with more precise 3-D simulations. This same method is then extended to the study of two-way coupling between a viscous compressible flow and a bubble population in the flow field.