Numerical Investigation on Bubble Dynamics Using DOE Approach for Cavitation Machining Process

The cavitation machining process is non-traditional, gaining importance in the research community due to various advantages such as sustainability, versatility, and clean machining process. The present work examines the effect of various bubble dynamics parameters for cavitation machining. The parameter such as downstream pressure, the density of carrier fluid, initial bubble radius, and initial pressure inside the bubble on output response, i.e. implosion pressure, because the intensity of implosion pressure creates plastic deformation and behaves as a tool to remove material in cavitation machining. In bubble dynamics, the downstream pressure and the density of carrier fluid are controllable factors. The initial radius of the bubble and the initial pressure inside it are considered uncontrollable factors because it varies with time, and the process engineer has little control over these. Three different levels of control factors were planned, and a full factorial design has been considered to analyse the impact on implosion pressure. While simulating the experiments, three sets of uncontrollable factors are chosen to derive the effect of these factors. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the statistically significant controllable factors using the outcomes. The determined implosion pressure is capable of machining most of the engineering materials. The analysis indicates that the downstream pressure is statistically significant, while the fluid density has an insignificant effect on the implosion pressure.