Experimental study on load characteristic and icebreaking process of submerged Venturi cavitating water jets

Abstract

This study studied the mechanism and process of ice breaking by a submerged high-pressure water jet (HPWJ) in a Venturi structure through experimental investigations. Firstly, the analysis focused on the load characteristics and flow field properties of the submerged cavitating HPWJs, including typical wall load time-history curves and characteristic phases. Furthermore, two key structural parameters of the Venturi nozzle were optimized under the parameter combination used in this study, unlike the non-submerged state, the nozzle with a throat length-to-diameter ratio of 1 and a divergence angle of 8° was the best for wall loads. Subsequently, based on the load analysis, the ice breaking process and failure modes under the combined effects of flow field disturbance pressure loads and cavitation pressure loads of the submerged HPWJ were discussed. Finally, the influence of submerged status on the ice breaking process was summarized. The research found that the submerged jets exhibited good performance during sustained icebreaking processes due to cavitation generated from Venturi throat and shear action of the submerged water jet interacting with the flow field, thus potentially serving as an auxiliary method for future subglacial structure icebreaking.