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A CFD-based approach to study cavitation in high-pressure homogenizer valves. Part 1. Cavitation inception, extent and location

Rütten, Eva LU and Håkansson, Andreas LU orcid (2025) In Chemical Engineering Science 316.
Abstract

Hydrodynamic cavitation occurs in high-pressure homogenizer (HPH) valves, causes wear and influences emulsification. Substantial advances have previously been made studying HPH cavitation in experimental systems. However, there is a lack of understanding on how cavitation develops in industrially relevant valves. The series applies CFD to address this knowledge gap. This part combines a previously validated one-phase CFD model and a macroscopic cavitation model–previously seen to compare favourably to experimental cavitation visualization–to study inception, location and extent of cavitation, as a function of homogenizing pressure and Thoma number. Cavitation inception is predicted below a cavitation number of 0.20. Vapour accumulates... (More)

Hydrodynamic cavitation occurs in high-pressure homogenizer (HPH) valves, causes wear and influences emulsification. Substantial advances have previously been made studying HPH cavitation in experimental systems. However, there is a lack of understanding on how cavitation develops in industrially relevant valves. The series applies CFD to address this knowledge gap. This part combines a previously validated one-phase CFD model and a macroscopic cavitation model–previously seen to compare favourably to experimental cavitation visualization–to study inception, location and extent of cavitation, as a function of homogenizing pressure and Thoma number. Cavitation inception is predicted below a cavitation number of 0.20. Vapour accumulates in the large vortices of the outlet chamber, and the steady-state volume fraction of vapour accumulation decreases with cavitation number. Moreover, operating the HPH at a low Thoma number results in shifting the macroscopic flow. This helps explaining the observation of reduced emulsion breakup under extensive cavitation.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Cavitation, CFD, Emulsification, High-pressure homogenization
in
Chemical Engineering Science
volume
316
article number
122002
pages
13 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:105007816869
ISSN
0009-2509
DOI
10.1016/j.ces.2025.122002
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Authors
id
b3573b68-3d3c-4e61-a511-b6b45b8e0cb5
date added to LUP
2025-06-24 15:10:27
date last changed
2025-06-25 10:26:33
@article{b3573b68-3d3c-4e61-a511-b6b45b8e0cb5,
  abstract     = {{<p>Hydrodynamic cavitation occurs in high-pressure homogenizer (HPH) valves, causes wear and influences emulsification. Substantial advances have previously been made studying HPH cavitation in experimental systems. However, there is a lack of understanding on how cavitation develops in industrially relevant valves. The series applies CFD to address this knowledge gap. This part combines a previously validated one-phase CFD model and a macroscopic cavitation model–previously seen to compare favourably to experimental cavitation visualization–to study inception, location and extent of cavitation, as a function of homogenizing pressure and Thoma number. Cavitation inception is predicted below a cavitation number of 0.20. Vapour accumulates in the large vortices of the outlet chamber, and the steady-state volume fraction of vapour accumulation decreases with cavitation number. Moreover, operating the HPH at a low Thoma number results in shifting the macroscopic flow. This helps explaining the observation of reduced emulsion breakup under extensive cavitation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Rütten, Eva and Håkansson, Andreas}},
  issn         = {{0009-2509}},
  keywords     = {{Cavitation; CFD; Emulsification; High-pressure homogenization}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Chemical Engineering Science}},
  title        = {{A CFD-based approach to study cavitation in high-pressure homogenizer valves. Part 1. Cavitation inception, extent and location}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2025.122002}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ces.2025.122002}},
  volume       = {{316}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}