Cavitation for Process Enhancement

Contributors: Tobias Bauer

Cavitation bubble–particle interactions play a crucial role in a wide range of industrial, pharmaceutical, and biomedical applications. The presence of solid particles or droplets can reduce the cavitation threshold by introducing gaseous nuclei, while also exhibiting strong mechanical effects such as particle acceleration and the formation of high-velocity jets. These interactions can lead to particle deagglomeration, separation, and fragmentation—phenomena that are increasingly harnessed to control particle size and distribution. However, the fundamental mechanisms governing these processes remain poorly understood. As a part of the external page CaviPRO consortium, our research aims to develop experimental techniques as well as theoretical and numerical models to elucidate how particles influence cavitation dynamics, with the ultimate goal of enabling more efficient and controllable use of cavitation in particle-laden flows. The study begins with a detailed investigation of bubble–particle interactions at the single-particle level, considering both isolated bubble growth and multi-bubble cavitation. Insights from this microscale analysis are then applied to mesoscale phenomena such as particle deagglomeration, fragmentation and surface cleaning induced by moving bubble clusters.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) doctoral network external page CaviPRO investigate ways of harnessing hydrodynamic cavitation for intensifying mixing, reactions, emulsions and particle formation via developing systematic understanding, new devices and scale-up methodologies. Hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is known for causing damages on machines, pipelines, and equipment due to the formation and implosion of tiny gas bubbles and local temperature hotspots. Controlling and utilizing these harsh micro-conditions has the potential to revolutionise process unit operations such as mixing, reactions, emulsions, and particle formation for the benefit of the European process industries and global industrial community. Key applications involve water treatment, crystallisation, multiphase reactions and valorisation of waste biomass.