CDB2052

Chemical Engineering Lab I

September 2018

Experiment : 05 – Cavitation

Group : B10

Group Members : Muhammad Amirul Akmal Bin Mohd Kamal 24460

Aimal 'Aqillah Binti Mohamed Hanif 23795
Rashween Kaur A/P Jagjit Singh 24260
Muhammad Noor Firdaus Bin Sulaiman 24285
Awang Harun Al Rashid Bin Hamzah 18003028

Lab Instructor : Rendra

Date of Experiment : 4th October 2018

CHAPTER 1 (ABSTRACT)

Cavitation is the phenomenon that occurs when there is a sudden drop in a liquid.
Cavities or bubbles will form in the liquid due to the sudden pressure drop. Cavitation has many
disadvantages. The bubbles that is produced need to be compressed back to liquid and this
process will produce vibration that will cause pitting on the wall of the pipe. It also will damage
the pipe during the compression of gas bubbles as the bubble will implode against the wall of the
impeller and the wall of pipe. This experiment is conducted so that we can learn the nature of
this phenomenon and estimate the cavitation that can occur in a system pipeline. By knowing
this, we can avoid the disadvantages of the cavitation.

The objective of the experiment is the determination of resistant coefficient of venturi,

Kventuri and the vapor pressure during transportation of water through a pump. From the data
collected from the experiment, we can see that the trend of pressure drop increase as the flow
rate increase. The highest pressure dropped that is obtained from the experiment is -76 kPa at
flow rate of 3500 L/h. At this pressure drop, vapour pressure of water is reduced rapidly causing
high cavitation phenomenon occur hence making the boiling point of water also decrease. We
also get that the result for Kventury is ​-4.8144 from using the graph 1. As the conclusion, as the flow
rate of the system increase, the cavitation phenomenon will also increase due to the decreasing of vapour
pressure of water.
CHAPTER 2 (METHODOLOGY/EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES)

To start the experiment, firstly we make sure that the control valve is fully closed before turned
ON the switch pump. Then start the equipment by switch ON the power button and gently open
the control valve by anticlockwise to regulate the flow rate until desired reading on flowmeter
(1000 L/h). Next, measure and record the reading of throat unit and inlet pressure for calculation
later. After that, repeat the procedure above again for another 2 times to get the average value of
reading of throat unit and inlet pressure. Then repeat the experiment by changing and control the
valve until 3500 L/h in interval of 500 L/h. Lastly, switch OFF the switch pump.
CHAPTER 3 (RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS)

Graph 1 is based on the data given in Table 2.

For the linear graph above, gradient is 0.0156 and intercept is -25.722 KPa. The y-intercept should have
been in positive but this value we got might be caused from the zero error of the pressure gauge reading .

Based on equation P1= K*½ ρ V​1​2​ + P​v

P​v ​is the intercept and K* is the gradient obtained in graph 1.

P​v​= -25.722 KPa

K*= 0.0156

From equation
K* = 4.83+ Kventuri
Kventuri = K* - 4.83
Kventuri = 0.0156 - 4.83
Kventuri = -4.8144

Thus, based on equation P1= K*½ ρ V​1​2​ + P​2​ we know as the P1 increases, the velocity of liquid will
increase making the vapour of water decrease. This will lead to a higher cavitation as the inlet pressure
increases. Therefore, when the cavitation occurs, P​2 ​is equal to P​v​.
QUESTIONS

1. Cavitation is more pronounced in rough pipes than smooth surfaced pipes.

Ans: True. Rough surfaced pipes have more friction with the fluid and hence possibility of
cavitation is more pronounced.

2. What is the difference between inertial cavitation and non-inertial cavitation?

Ans: The difference between inertial and non inertial cavitation is that for inertial cavitation,
the bubble collapse rapidly and result in shock waves where else for non-inertial cavitation, the
bubbles are forced to oscillate in a fluid under an acoustic field.

3. What are the typical causes of pump cavitation?

- increase of the temperature of the pumped liquid
- Increase in the fluid velocity in the pump suction
- Reduction of flow at the pump suction
- Undesirable flow conditions caused by obstruction or sharp elbows in the suction piping.
- Running the pump too fast
- Handling liquid with low vapor pressure
- Having too many fittings at the suction pipe

4. What are the typical end results of cavitation in pumping systems?

Ans: The end result of cavitation is the collapse of the vapor bubbles inside the pump, which
can cause several problems. The first problem is a reduction in the pumping capacity of the
pump. If the pump is unable to keep up with the incoming flow, then an overflow situation may
occur. Cavitation also causes damage to the pump. The collapsing vapor bubbles can cause
excessive vibration, which can cause rotating parts, such as the impeller, to contact non-rotating
parts, such as the wear plates or wear rings, causing damage. Excessive vibration may also cause
premature failure to mechanical seals and bearings. Cavitation can also damage the wetted
components themselves from contact with the imploding vapor bubbles. In these instances, the
energy that is released when the vapor bubbles implode causes pieces of the metal to break off
and collide with other moving parts. The damage typically occurs to the impeller and can
severely reduce the operating life of the pump.

5. What are some common warning signs that may signal the end-user that they are experiencing
pump cavitation?
Ans: The pump will produce loud noise, inconsistent tank levels, change in temperature,
change in pressure, unexpected vibrations, impeller erosion and seal/bearing failure.
6. What are some common best practices end-users employ to prevent pump cavitation?
Ans: Reduce motor speed (RPMs) which slowing the pump down will reduce flow rate and
head pressure, install impeller inducer, reduce the temperature of the pump, liquid and other
component, increase liquid level around the suction area and increase the diameter of the eye at
the centre of the impeller.

7. From a technology perspective, what systems can end-users employ to help them more
effectively diagnose and mitigate pump cavitation?
Ans: ​The most effective solution is to listen to the pump and to evaluate the flow. Flow can
best be determined using flowmeters, and there are several types commercially available,
depending on the type of fluid being moved. Listening to the pump can be accomplished by the
naked ear by trained personnel or by using suitable noise level meters. More sophisticated
vibration measuring equipment can also be employed to detect cavitation. These portable devices
can connect to the pump bearing housings to detect movement (displacement) in the pumping
system​.

8. What are some of the most troublesome application occurrences of pump cavitation?
Ans: Among the most common applications that are susceptible to cavitation are applications
that have high-suction lifts with little-to-no discharge heads, as is the case with bypassing
sewage from manholes. In these applications, the duty point does not fall on the typical
performance curve because there is insufficient discharge pressure. In these applications, it is
called operating “too far to the right of the curve.” The way to fix this is to put artificial pressure
on the discharge of the pump. This can be accomplished by using smaller-diameter discharge
hose or placing a throttling valve in the discharge line. Other examples are pumping heated
liquids that are already close to their boiling points. In these instances, the fluid cannot be lifted
and must be provided a suitable distance above the height of the pump.

9. What are the effects of cavitation on the performance of diesel engines provided in example 1?
Ans: ​Often found in diesel engines on the exterior walls of wet cylinder liners. The amount of
erosion and decay will vary from engine to engine and may also vary from cylinder to cylinder.
Vertical strips or patches of decay often form outside the cylinder corresponding with the piston
thrust face. They may also form just over the top sealing ring of the liner. If not kept in check,
coolant may eventually penetrate the cylinder and contaminate the oil or oil may be introduced to
the coolant​. When cavitation occur, or anything that affects the local pressure or the local
temperature around the liners it will impact on the ease with which bubbles are formed and will
effects the potential for liner pitting.
10. How the cavitation plays an important role for the destruction of kidney stone?
Ans: ​High-speed photography was used to analyze cavitation bubble activity at the surface of
artificial and natural kidney stones during exposure to lithotripter shock waves ​in vitro​. When
stones are exposed to shock waves at overpressure sufficient to eliminate cavitation, they show
no surface damage such as erosion or pitting, and the dose of shock waves needed to fracture the
stones is substantially increased. When stones are treated with shock waves in which the timing
of the compressive and tensile components of the pressure pulse is reversed (thereby suppressing
cavitation) damage is dramatically reduced.

CHAPTER 4 (CONCLUSION)

From this experiment, we know that the cavitation will occur when there are sudden pressure
drop. This is when the velocity of liquid increase, the vapour pressure of liquid also decrease causing the
liquid to vapourised easily forming the bubbles in other word the cavitation. As the cavitation will cause
many disadvantages to the pipe and to the impeller as it will cause wear and tear and can cause leaking in
the system and lead to the loss of a company. Therefore the cavitation phenomenon need to be considered
when designing a piping system.

From the data we have obtained from the experiment, we know that the inlet pressure and
velocity of incoming fluid will affect the cavitation. As the inlet pressure rise the more the cavitation will
occur due to the drop of vapour pressure of water during the sudden pressure drop cause by increasing
velocity of fluid.

There are other typical cause of cavitation such as ​increase of the temperature of the pumped
liquid, increase in the fluid velocity in the pump suction, reduction of flow at the pump suction,
undesirable flow conditions caused by obstruction or sharp elbows in the suction piping, and
having too many fittings at the suction pipe need to be careful of and to prepare a solution to
reduce the cavitation phenomenon.
REFERENCES

1.) Application of small size cavitating venturi as flow controller and flow meter. (2011,
June 13). Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955598611000707
2.) Fluid Dynamics of Cavitation and Cavitating Turbopumps. (2018). Retrieved from
https://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&lr=&id=B5rXBLCzI8QC&oi=fnd&pg=PA2
&dq=cavitation+book&ots=8f-LKTFMFP&sig=blDTLKMf9B8e15rtndH_Dg3K0Ig&red
ir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cavitation%20book&f=false
3.) Mohammed Zamoum and Mohand Kessal_Analysis of Cavitating Flow through a Venturi (May
26, 2015). Retrieved from ​http://www.univ-tebessa.dz/fichiers/univ-boumardes/document.pdf
4.) Q&A: Pump cavitation diagnosis and control. (2017, March 24). Retrieved from
https://www.flowcontrolnetwork.com/qa-pump-cavitation-diagnosis-control/
5.) Yunus A. Cengel, John M. Cimbala_Fluid Mechanics ​Fundamentals and Applications
Mc Graw Hill, International Edition 2006. Singapore.
6.) Cavitation Bubble Cluster Activity in the Breakage of Kidney Stones by Lithotripter
Shock Waves. (September 17, 2003) Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442573/​.
7.) D. Buono, D. Siano, A. Senatore, E. FrosinaGerotor pump cavitation monitoring and
fault diagnosis using vibration analysis through the employment of
auto-regressive-moving-average technique, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory,
71, pp. 61-82, 2017.
APPENDICES

Calculation
H1 = height of the venturi at inlet = 35mm =0.035m
D2 = depth of the venturi at inlet = 6 mm =0.006m
D1 = depth of venturi at throat = 6 mm = 0.006m

A1 = H1 x D1
A1 = 0.035m x 0.006m
= 2.1 x 10-4 m2
V1 = Q1/A
= ​1000 L/h
2.1 x 10​-4​ m​2

= 1.32 m/s
As,
A​1​V​1​ = A​2​V​2

V​2​ = ​(A​1​V​1​)
A​2

V​2​ = ​H​1 x​ D​1​ x V​1

H​2​ x D​2

V​2​ = ​0.035m x 0.006m x V​1

​0.006 x 0.006

V​2 =
​ 5.83 V​1

As,

Q= 1000 L/h

V​1​=1.32 m/s

Hence,

V​2​ = 5.83 x 1.32 m/s

V​2​= 7.70 m/s

When, V​1​ = 1.32 m/s

½ pV​1​2 ​= ½ x 1000 x (1.32)​2

=871.2 kg/ms​2

The rest of the value of the velocities are tabulated in Table 2.

 Table 1​​: Recorded data to determine resistance coefficient of venturi, Kventuri.

Flow Upstream Pressure P1 Pressure of throat P2 Average

Rate Q1,
L/h bar kPa bar kPa P1/kPa P2/kPa

1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.18 -0.19 -0.19 18 19 19 0 -18.67

1500 0.1 0.1 0.1 10 10 10 -0.32 -0.32 -0.32 -32 -32 -32 10 -32

2000 0.2 0.21 0.21 20 21 21 -0.50 -0.52 -0.52 -50 -52 -52 20.67 -51.33

2500 0.42 0.42 0.43 42 42 43 -0.68 -0.67 -0.67 -68 -67 -67 42.33 -67.33

3000 0.95 0.90 0.90 95 90 90 -0.69 -0.68 -0.68 -69 -68 -68 91.67 -68.33

3500 1.55 1.55 1.53 155 155 153 -0.76 -0.64 -0.635 -76 -64 -63.5 154.33 -67.83

Table 2​​: Value of P1 and ​½ ρ(v1)^2

Upstream velocity (v1) m/s Upstream pressure (P1) kPa ½ ρ(v1)^2

1.32 0 871.20

1.98 10 1960.20

2.65 20.67 3511.25

3.31 42.33 5478.05

9.97 91.67 7780.45

4.63 154.33 10718.45