Application, Advantages and Disadvantages of Cavitation
Read: What is Cavitation?
Advantages and application of cavitation
- Cavitation found application in ultrasonic cleaning baths. It has sufficient force to overcome the adhesive force between molecules of impurity and clean surface.
- Controlled cavitation phenomenon can be used to enhance a chemical reaction.
- Cavitation process uses to homogenize and mix the suspended particles in colloidal liquids.
- Cavitation used to improve the performance of high-speed marine vessels and projectiles.
- Cavitation in wastewater treatment - extreme cavitation use to break down pollutants and organic molecules.
- The field of material processing technologies and medicine use the advantages of cavitation.
- In shock wave lithotripsy, cavitation plays major roles in the destruction of kidney stones. Cavitation also used in other medical treatments (eg: Liposuction), where ultrasound is used.
Disadvantages of Cavitation
- Shockwave produced by collapsing of bubble cause significant damage in moving parts of hydraulic machines.
- Cavitation causes vibration and noise.
- Cyclic stress on boundary surface cause the fatigue of material.
- Localized cavitation causes stress erosion of metallic surfaces and produce cavities in it.
- The shock wave produced by cavitation is the one of the problems of military submarines, it exposes the position of submarine.
- Cavitation in pumps, turbine and other hydraulic machines restricts the flow of fluid and reduce the efficiency.