“Cavitation: the Rayleigh-Plesset equation can clean our sewers”

Dr Charlie Fairfield

Thursday, 29th November 2007, 6.30 pm start

Livingstone Tower : University of Strathclyde

High-pressure water jets clean, and occasionally burst, our sewers. The cleaning, and damage, are cavitation induced. This lecture examines the use of a 4th order Runge-Kutta solution to the Rayleigh-Plesset equation: . The dynamics of oscillating cavities in the fluid flow predict the effects of jet angle of attack, nozzle stand-off distance, and pressure, on the damage seen in plastic and ceramic pipes. Applications of this work to the quest for the perfect pint are also discussed.


The water jet	Rayleigh-Plesset solution	Cavitation damage

Non-IMA members welcome to attend. Refreshments available from 6.30 pm

Charlie is a civil engineer working in the higher education sector managing the research, development and application of non-destructive testing and vibration analysis to industrial problems ranging from pipeline failures to bridge condition assessments. Clients include: Local Authorities, manufacturing industries, Research Councils, consulting engineers, and contractors. He has researched tonight’s topic since 2002 with Mr Scott Campbell (BG Group, Aberdeen) and Dr David Reid (Napier University) with funding from Wavin Plastics Limited. He is also a consultant to RMP, specialists in noise and vibration measurement.