In this study of attached cavities on an axisymmetric headform, measurements were made of the noise generated by the cavitation.  In addition to hydrophone recordings, a new technique employing flush mounted electrodes was used to measure the steady state and dynamic volume fluctuations of the attached cavities.  The spectra of the noise are quite featureless and show some decrease in the high frequency content as the cavities become larger.  However, the spectra from the electrode measurement show some distinct frequencies of fluctuation

Brennen, C. E.

Ceccio, S. L.

English

Caltech Authors - Main

Abstract 
OBSERVATIONS OF THE DYNAMICS AND ACOUSTICS OF 
ATTACHED CAVITIES 
S. L. Ceccio and C. E. Brennen 
California Institute of Technology 
Pasadena, California 
In this study of attached cavities on an axisymmetric head- 
form, measurements were made of the noise generated by the 
cavitation. In addition to hydrophone recordings, a new tech- 
nique employing flush mounted electrodes was used to measure 
the steady state and dynamic volume fluctuations of the at- 
tached cavities. The spectra of the noise are quite featureless 
and show some decrease in the high frequency content as the 
cavities become larger. However, the spectra from the elec- 
trode measurement show some distinct frequencies of fluctua- 
tion. 
1. Introduction 
This paper presents some measurements of the dynamics 
and acoustics of attached cavities. Information regarding the 
dynamics of this kind of cavitation is important in a number 
of different applications. As discussed by Weitendorf [1989] 
it is critical to the understanding of ship propellor/hull in- 
teractions. It is also of importance to the understanding of 
the acoustic signal generated by ship propellors (Blake et. al. 
[1977]) and the dynamic behavior of cavitating pumps (Bren- 
nen and Acosta [1976]). The dynamics of attached cavities 
have been difficult to study due to the absence of simple, non- 
intrusive volume measurement techniques. Presented here are 
the initial results of a new method to study both the steady 
state and dynamic volume fluctuations of attached cavities, us- 
ing electrical impedance measurements between flush-mounted 
electrodes. The same hardware has been used recently to study 
bubble cavitation (Brennen and Ceccio [1989]). In the present 
study the technique is used to provide a measurement of the 
cavity volume fluctuations. In other contexts, the electrodes 
could be used on either steady or moving surfaces as well as 
on surfaces which are geometrically complex. 
2. Nomenclature 
D = diameter of the axisymrnetric body 
E = electrode signal voltage 
F = electrode spectral coefficient 
H = acoustic spectral coefficients 
L = cavity Length 
P = free stream pressure 
P, = water vapor pressure 
Re = Reynolds number based on the diameter Re = UD/v 
s = streamwise coordinate measured along the body 
surface from at the stagnation point. 
U = free stream velocity 
Y = kinematic viscosity of water 
p = density of water 
a = cavitation number, ( P  - P,)/($u~) 
3. Experimental Methods 
Attached cavities were produced on an axisyrnrnetric 
headform; the body used was a Schiebe headform with a 5.14 
rnm maximum diameter and a minimum pressure coefficient of 
-0.75 (Gates et al. [1979]). The actual final diameter of the 
body, denoted by D, is 5.08 mm due to truncation. The body 
was constructed of lucite and was instrumented with three sur- 
face electrodes made of silver epoxy and located at  positions 
s/D= 0.608, 0.645, and 0.691. The surfaces of the body, in- 
cluding the electrode surface and electrode-lucite interface were 
highly polished. The interior of the headform contained water 
and a ITC-1042 hydrophone (Fig. 1). The acoustic impedance 
of lucite and water are nearly matched, thus reducing the at- 
tenuation due to reflection on the body surface. With this 
hydrophone geometry, external flow noise was reduced, and 
the dispersive effects of free stream bubbles were minimized. 
The headforms were supported by a two bladed sting with a 
nominally zero degree yaw angle. 
The experiments were conducted in the Caltech Low Tur- 
bulence Water Tunnel (Gates [1977]). In all the tests, the 
velocity of the tunnel was maintained constant and the pres- 
sure slowly reduced to approach the final operating point. The 
controlled air content of the water was 6-7 ppm for the results 
presented here. 
Flash photographs of the attached cavities were taken for 
each operating point. The examples shown in Fig. 2 are for a 
tunnel velocity of 9 m/s and cavitation numbers of 0.40, 0.38, 
0.36, and 0.34. The approximate percentage of the body cir- 
cumference covered by the cavity (or cavities) can be measured 
from these photographs in addition to the mean cavity length 
and thickness. Various cavity surface structures such as surface 
waves and cavity "fingering" may also be seen. 
The internal hydrophone detected the noise made by the 
cavities. The signal was amplified and low pass filtered with a 
cut off of 100 kHz and digitized at a sampling rate of 1 MHz. 
The high frequency content of the signal is limited by the r e  
sponse of the hydrophone, which is flat to approximately 80 
kHz. Furthermore, the entire noise measurement is strongly 
affected by reverberation in the tunnel, especially in the fre- 
quency range up to 5 kHz where the fundamental acoustic 
modes of the tunnel are located. By placing the hydrophone 
inside of the bluff body, the signal to noise ratio was signifi- 
cantly improved, and the effect of free stream bubbles on the 
acoustic signal was reduced. 
The electrodes were used to measure both the mean vol- 
ume and the volume fluctuations of the attached cavities. An 
alternating potential is applied to each electrode with the ten- 
ter electrode voltage being 180 degrees out of phase with the 
others. Changes in the center electrode current are detected 
and recorded. When a void is present over a portion of an 
electrode, two separate effects may change the signal. First, 
the percentage of the surface area of the electrode which will 
freely conduct electricity is reduced, and hence the current de- 
HYDROPHONE 
now 
f-- 
A'ITACHED CAVITY 
MEAN VOLUME 
AND VOLUME 
FLUCTUATIONS 
HYDROPHONE 1 ~ACO;~~SURE SIGNAL OF 
CAVITY 
Figure 1 Schematic of Axisymmetric Body Assembly. 
CAVITATION NUMBER, 0 
Figure 3 Cavity Length plotted against the Cavitation 
Number, a, for various tunnel velocities, U. 
creases. This is the primary signal detected by the electrode 
system. There may also be a secondary effect due to changes 
in conductivity of the cavity contents caused by the presence 
of a liquid and vapor mixture. The dynamic response of the 
electrode signal processor is on the order of 10 kHz, and the 
signal to electrical noise ratio was at  least 45 dB. 
4. Experimental  Results 
The formation of attached cavities was intermittent and 
occurred at  seemingly random locations on the circumference 
of the body. Because all the experiments were conducted in a 
fairly narrow range of Reynolds number (Re = 4.4 x lo5 -4.8 x 
lo5), the cavitation formation index for all experiments was 
about a = 0.40; the cavitation was located at about s/D=0.45. 
The attached cavity formation index is defined by the first 
appearance of attached cavitation anywhere on the headform. 
The cavitation disappearance index, which was always greater 
than the formation index because of the hysteresis effect, was 
about a = 0.42. 
The photographs taken at  each operating point were used 
as a reference for the acoustic and electrode data. At first for- 
mation the headform circumference was only about half cov- 
ered with the attached cavities. Portions of the cavity were 
stable while others were intermittent. As the cavitation num- 
ber was decreased, the cavities expanded to cover the entire 
circumference of the body. Further decrease in the cavita- 
tion number increased the length of the cavity which is plotted 
against cavitation number in Fig. 3. The surface of the cavity 
shows a transition from a smooth laminar interface to a wavy 
and then a turbulent surface in a manner described and in- 
vestigated by Brennen [1970]. The point of transition on the 
cavity surface was about one half of the total cavity length in 
all cases. The cavity was composed of a series of longitudinal 
"finger" cavities which, at  lower cavitation numbers, combined 
to cover the entire circumference. 
Acoustic spectra of the signal from the internal hydro- 
phone were generated for all operating conditions. The largest 
portion of the acoustic energy was found in the low frequency 
range from 0 to  5 kHz where the dominant reverberant modes 
of the tunnel are located. Hence, the spectra up to 5 kHz are 
Figure 2 Examples of Attached Cavities for o = 0.40,0.38,0.36, and 0.34 
ACOUSTIC FREQUENCY (k Hz) 
Figure 4 Acoustic Spectra for a = 0.40 and 0.32 at 
U = 9.5 m/s and for a = 1.0 at 9.5 m/s. 
Vertical scale is arbitrary. 
of limited value. Fig. 4 presents the spectra for the cavitating 
conditions of a = 0.40 and a = 0.32 and for the non-cavitating 
background condition at a = 1.0, a11 at a tunnel velocity of 
9.5 m/s. The background spectra has an approximately 20 dB 
falloff with resonant peaks at higher frequencies. These res- 
onant peaks can be related to specific acoustic path lengths 
in the water tunnel test section. For a = 0.40 the cavitation 
was partially developed, and for a = 0.32 the cavity was fully 
developed. Apart from the background peaks, the cavitating 
spectra magnitudes are generally at least 20-40 dB greater than 
the background. The cavitation spectra have a similar shape 
which is significantly different from the background shape, and 
the magnitudes of the high frequency content for the fully de- 
veloped cavity are lower than for the partially developed case. 
This could be due to a muffling effect the cavity may have on 
the noise reaching the hydrophone. A significant portion of 
the high frequency noise may be due to the collapse of small 
bubbles formed in the pressure recovery region where the cav- 
ity collapses. In the fully developed case, these bubbles would 
be further away from the hydrophone and the noise would be 
somewhat shielded by the cavity. This trend is the reverse of 
that found by Blake et. al. [I9771 for attached cavities on hy- 
drofoils, where lower cavitation numbers led to an increase in 
the high frequency magnitudes. The shape of the spectra mea- 
sured by Blake remains virtually constant with cavitation num- 
ber, and is similar to his reported background. However, the 
hydrophone used by Blake was externally mounted and hence 
the signal detected would be subject to different reverberant 
or transmission effects than those in the present measurement. 
Both the mean and fluctuating components of the elec- 
trode output in the current experiment contain interesting in- 
formation. First, the mean level of the electrode signal is an 
indication of the percentage of the circumference that is cov- 
ered by the cavity, and this is presented as a function of cavi- 
tation number in Fig. 5. As the cavitation number decreases, 
the percentage of the circumference covered by the cavity in- 
creases and hence the electrode signal voltage increases. It 
levels off as the cavity becomes fully developed. A t  high cavi- 
tation numbers, the large uncertainty represented by the large 
standard deviation is due to the temporal intermittency of the 
cavitation. Once the cavity is fully developed, the uncertainty 
decreases. 
Secondly, the fluctuating component df the electrode sig- 
nal was analysed. Initial spectra obtained without filtering 
indicated that there were no frequencies of significant magni- 
tude above 500 Hz. Therefore, the fluctuating signal was low 
pass filtered with a cutoff frequency of 1 kHz and was digitally 
sampled at 2 kHz. This filtering eliminated the signals pro- 
duced by the travelling bubbles which may form on portions of 
the electrode not covered by the cavity. Fig. 6 represents two 
typical spectra. They a11 have a similar shape with Iarge ampli- 
tudes at low frequency and a uniform roll off to approximately 
500 Hz. Among other things this means that the interfacial 
stability waves described by Brennen 119701 do not contribute 
significantly, since using the obsemations of Brennen we esti- 
mate that those frequencies are in the range of 5-10 kHz. 
At the higher cavitation numbers, the frequencies below 1 
Hz are dominant. The temporal intermittency associated with 
the partially developed cavities produces this low frequency 
component. As the cavities become fully developed, these low 
frequencies become less pronounced. However, an intermedi- 
CAVITATION NUMBER, 0 
Figure 5 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Electrode 
Signal, E, plotted against Cavitation Number. 
Vertical scale is arbitrary. 
8 = 0.40 
U=9m/s  
LOW FREQUENCY 
ELECTRODE SIGNAL FREQUENCY (Hal ELECTRODE SIGNAL FREQUENCY (Hz) 
ELECTRODE SIGNAL FREQUENCY (Hz) 
a = 0.34 
U=9nlls 
LOW FREQUENCY 
ELECTRODE SIGNAL FREQUENCY (Hz) 
Figure 6 Electrode Signal Spectra for a = 0.40 and 0.34 at U = 9 m/s. Vertical scale is arbitrary. 
ate frequency oscillation may be found in the spectra for the 
partially developed cavities. As seen in Fig. 6, the spectra for 
a = 0.40 has distinct frequency peaks (for example at f = 40 
Hz, 103 Hz, and 133 Hz). These peaks are not due to line 
noise, are repeatable, and disappear after the cavity becomes 
fully developed. Since they occur only when the cavity is par- 
tially developed, they may be due to pulsation of the finger 
cavities (see Fig. 7). 
After the cavity is fully developed, the mean level of the 
signal fluctuations has decreased, but it is still significant. 
Since the electrodes were positioned under the laminar cavity 
region, where the cavity may be considered evacuated, these 
fluctuations are mainly due to two processes. Since the fully 
developed cavity consists of a sum of individual "finger" cavi- 
ties, the surfaces of the fingers wet the electrode surface, and as 
these boundaries fluctuate, a signal is generated. Secondly, the 
cavity surface may intermittantly collapse, wetting the surface 
and producing a signal. These spectra exhibit no dominant 
frequencies. 
5. Conclusions 
fluctuations are difficult to study acoustically since most of the 
cavity oscillation frequencies are below 1 kHz and are therefore 
strongly influenced by tunnel reverberation. The hydrophone 
was placed inside the headform, and the background and cav- 
itating spectra were differentiated. The cavitation noise spec- 
tra exhibited a consistent shape, although the magnitudes at 
PARTIAL CAVlTY 
PULSATION 
Photographic and acoustic/pressure measurement are the 
traditional methods used to study attached cavities. Volume Figure 7 One possible mode of cavity oscillation. 
higher frequencies did exhibit some variation with flow condi- 
tions. 
The electrode technique described here measures the area 
of surface cavitation as well as any dynamic component which 
could cause intermittent fluid/surface contact. The fluctuat- 
ing component of the electrode signal revealed wideband cav- 
ity oscillations over a range of frequencies up to 500 Hz. But, 
in addition and somewhat remarkably, they also showed a se- 
ries of quite specific and repeatable frequencies present in the 
dynamic signal produced by intermittent cavities. These fre- 
quencies are about 40, 100, and 130 Hz and do not appear 
t o  coincide with any other structural or acoustic frequency of 
the system. They appear to be frequencies associated with 
pulsation of the finger cavities. 
Although only one electrode geometry was used in this 
experiment, many other geometries are possible. For example, 
electrodes arrayed along the length of the cavity could yield 
information concerning the transition process and the collapse 
and shedding process in the pressure recovery region. We hope 
t o  further explore the application of this new technique. 
6. Acknowledgments 
The authors are grateful for the support of the Office of 
Naval Research under contract N00014-85-K-0397. 
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Observations of the Dynamics and Acoustics of Attached Cavities

25 Years of Research on Propellor Excited Pressure Fluctuations and Cavitation.

Blake, W.K., Wolpert, M.J. and Geib, F.E. 1977. Cavitation Noise and Inception as Influenced by Boundary Layer Development on a Hydrofoil. J. Fluid Mech., Vol. 80, pp. 617-640.

Brennen, C.E. 1970. Cavity Surface Wave Patterns and General Appearance. J. Fluid Mech., Vol. 44, pp. 33-49.

Brennen, C.E. and Acosta, A.J. 1976. The Dynamic Transfer Function for a Cavitating Inducer. J. Fluids Engineering, Vol. 98, pp. 182-191.

Brennen, C.E. and Ceccio. S.L. 1989. Recent Observations on Cavitation and Cavitation Noise. Proc. Third Int . Syrnp.

Cavitation Inception and Nuclei Distrubution -

Cavitation Noise and Inception as Influenced by Boundary Layer Development on a Hydrofoil.

Cavity Surface Wave Patterns and General Appearance.

Noise and Erosion in Fluid Systems,

on Cavitation Noise and Erosion in Fluid Systems, San Francisco, CA, Dec. 1989, pp. 67-78.

Recent Observations on Cavitation and Cavitation Noise.

The Dynamic Transfer Function for a Cavitating Inducer.

Weitendorf, E.A. 1989. 25 Years of Research on Propellor Excited Pressure Fluctuations and Cavitation. Proc. Third Int. Symp. on Cavitation Noise and Erosion in Fluid Systems, San Francisco, CA, Dec. 1989, pp. 1-10.

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