Cavitation onset in counter-rotating vortices from separating disks

In tribonucleation, a liquid-to-gas phase transition induced by a local pressure drop (cavitation) is highly undesirable, as it causes surface erosion and noise. A paradigmatic flow characteristic of tribonucleation problems is the flow between two coaxial disks. The flow is produced by the rapid upward movement of the top disk, which is initially at rest and in contact with the bottom disk. An analytical model, the so-called negative squeeze film, is typically used to predict the flow in the gap between the disks in this class of problems. Such a model considers an azimuthally uniform inflow in the gap between the disks. In this study, we experimentally show that if a negligibly small misalignment between the axes of the two disks is introduced, the inflow is not azimuthally uniform as expected from the negative squeeze film, but an entry jet appears in the flow between the disks. This entry jet is associated with the formation of two counter-rotating vortices. From reconstructing the pressure field from PIV velocity data in the vortex regions, we find that the local pressure is lower than the vapor pressure. This indicates that the gaseous phase in the cores of the vortices, which is observed from shadowgraphy visualizations in our study, should be attributed to cavitation. The negative-squeeze-film model, however, largely fails to predict the minimum pressure. Therefore, the onset of cavitation is not correctly captured by the analytical model. • Small misalignment between disks produces a non-uniform entry jet during separation. • The entry jet leads to two counter-rotating vortices forming between the disk gap. • Pressure fields reconstructed from PIV reveal pressures below vapor pressure. • The negative squeeze film model fails to predict cavitation onset.