Water susceptibility and background nuclei content in a water tunnel are investigated using a cavitation susceptibility meter. The measured cumulative histogram of nuclei concentration against critical pressure shows a power law dependence over a large range of concentrations and pressures. These results show that the water strength is not characterised by a single tension but is susceptible to ‘all’ tensions depending on the relevant timescale. This background nuclei population is invariant to tunnel conditions showing that it is stabilised against dissolution. Consideration of a practical cavitating flow about a sphere shows that although background nuclei may be activated, their numbers are so few compared with other sources that they are insignificant for this case.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	nuclei, water, susceptibility, cavitation inception
Research Division:	Engineering
Research Group:	Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering
Research Field:	Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences
UTAS Author:	Venning, JA (Dr James Venning)
UTAS Author:	Khoo, MT (Mr Matthew Khoo)
UTAS Author:	Pearce, BW (Dr Bryce Pearce)
UTAS Author:	Brandner, PA (Professor Paul Brandner)
ID Code:	125247
Year Published:	2018
Web of Science® Times Cited:	14
Deposited By:	NC Maritime Engineering and Hydrodynamics
Deposited On:	2018-04-10
Last Modified:	2018-11-23
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