Numerical Simulation of a Cavitating Pulsating Water Jet Used for Removing Contaminants from Metal Surfaces

Sa？etak The paper presents an environmentally friendly method for cleaning metal surfaces from contaminants. In this method, the contaminants are removed from surfaces by a cavitating pulsating water jet generated in the nozzle and directed at the surface. The cavitation-generating effectiveness of three various design nozzles was investigated numerically using the SolidWorks 2015 Flow Simulation software. The volume fraction of the vapour generated in the flow inside the nozzles was determined. Selected nozzle was studied experimentally in respect of efficiency of abrasive particle removal. After having carried out experiments to test the removal efficiency of the method, it was established that the water that has remained on the cleaned surface decreases its effectiveness. To solve this problem, a prototype of a cavitation-generating head with a water removal system was created and studied numerically