Cavitation inception in a turbulent mixing layer

Cavitation inception in turbulent shear flows predominantly occurs within the quasi-streamwise vortices, and the inception indices tend to increase with the Reynolds number. Experimental studies have investigated the dependency of the inception on the Reynolds number, but clear understanding remains challenging due to difficulties in measurements and the stochastic nature of cavitation. In this study, we numerically investigate the cavitation inception in a canonical turbulent mixing layer. Our simulations are conducted using the open-source Multi-component Flow Code (MFC), which solves the compressible Navier-Stokes equations using a five-equation multiphase model with the HLLC approximate Riemann solver. In addition, a sub-grid bubble model with the Keller-Miksis equation is implemented to capture the dynamics of micro-scale bubbles. However, capturing the rapid collapse and rebound of cavitation bubbles often demands excessive computational resources. Thus, this study aims to present our approach to tackle the computational challenges, while also providing preliminary results on cavitation dynamics in a mixing layer.