• CN: 11-2187/TH
  • ISSN: 0577-6686

Journal of Mechanical Engineering ›› 2025, Vol. 61 ›› Issue (18): 378-395.doi: 10.3901/JME.2025.18.378

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Status and Prospect on Cavitation Characteristics of Viscous Oil

YAN Qingdong1,2, LIU Shiqi1, LIU Cheng1,3, GUO Meng1,3,4, ZHANG Jiahua1, KE Zhifang1,2, WEI Wei1,5   

  1. 1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081;
    2. Advanced Technology Research Institute, Beijing Institute of Technology, Jinan 250307;
    3. Yangtze Delta Region Academy of Beijing Institute of Technology, Jiaxing 314000;
    4. The State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatrnic System, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027;
    5. Chongqing Innovation Center, Beijing Institute of Technology, Chongqing 066004
  • Received:2024-10-06 Revised:2025-03-28 Published:2025-11-08

Abstract: Cavitation runs throughout the service process of fluid components, causing vibration, noise and even mechanical failure, greatly affecting the performance of fluid components and becoming a chronic problem of fluid components. Due to its low saturated vapor pressure and high gas content, the formation mechanism and evolution characteristics of viscous oil cavitation are quite different from those of steam-type cavitation in which water media is dominated by phase changes. In order to analyze the cavitation mechanism of viscous oil, the positive effect of gas in the oil on the cavitation inception is summarized, and it is pointed out that the higher gas content makes the viscous oil prone to gas-type cavitation caused by the precipitation of dissolved gas and the expansion of bubbles. The construction of gas-type cavitation model is discussed, and the influence of oil medium effect on cavitation and the cavitation characteristics of viscous oil fluid machinery are sorted out. It is pointed out that, the cavitation type of viscous oil fluid components needs to be clarified urgently, the gas-containing oil cavitation model needs to be accurately described, and the internal observation of high pressure and high rotation speed components is difficult to observe. The development vision of viscous oil cavitation flow is put forward: ① carry out viscous oil cavitation nucleation spectrum measurements to obtain the influence of medium properties on cavitation nucleation; ② explore the gas phase dissolution mechanism and oil-vapor phase change characteristics, and establish a gas-containing oil cavitation prediction model; ③ extract typical viscous oil components cavitation structures are used to conduct research on unsteady cavitation flows.

Key words: viscous oil, cavitation, gas-type, computational fluid mechanics

CLC Number: