Cavitation upon low-speed solid-liquid impact

When a solid object impacts on the surface of a liquid, extremely high pressure develops at the site of contact. Von Karman's study of this classical physics problem showed that the pressure on the bottom surface of the impacting body approaches infinity for flat impacts. Yet, in contrast to the high pressures found from experience and in previous studies, we show that a flat-bottomed cylinder impacting a pool of liquid can decrease the local pressure sufficiently to cavitate the liquid. Cavitation occurs because the liquid is slightly compressible and impact creates large pressure waves that reflect from the free surface to form negative pressure regions. We find that an impact velocity as low as similar to 3 m/s suffices to cavitate the liquid and propose a new cavitation number to predict cavitation onset in low-speed solid-liquid impact-scenarios. These findings imply that localized cavitation could occur in impacts such as boat slamming, cliff jumping, and ocean landing of spacecraft.

Automated summary

The study found that when a solid object impacts a liquid surface, cavitation can occur in the liquid, leading to a decrease in local pressure. Large pressure waves created by the impact reflect back from the free surface to create negative pressure regions, with cavitation potentially happening at relatively low impact velocities. This research suggests that localized cavitation could occur in various impact scenarios such as boat slamming, cliff jumping, and ocean landing of spacecraft.