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Physics Letters A ••• (••••) •••–•••

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Physics Letters A
www.elsevier.com/locate/pla

Cavitation occurring in capillary tubes

Steve Q. Cai
TeGazer Technologies, 4516 Red Spruce Ln, Manlius, NY 13104, United States of America

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Surface etches caused by cavitation often occur behind the blade of a rapidly rotating propeller or on
Received 10 September 2018 a vibrating surface where liquid is subjected to suddenly reduced or oscillating saturation pressure. This
Received in revised form 19 November 2018 phenomenon has never been reported in a continuous capillary pipe in which flow pressure varied gently
Accepted 19 November 2018
without injection of external radiation energy. On the other aspect, acoustically tinkling signals were
Available online xxxx
Communicated by C.R. Doering
recognized decades ago during operation of the oscillation capillary heat pipe, but lacking of vigorous
scientific understanding of the root causes. In this article, we report cavitation and its surface etches in
Keywords: meandering capillary tubes with the inner diameter of 1.8 mm. Numerous etching pits were observed on
Cavitation the interior face at the heat rejection region after over 200 hours operation. Irregular copper debris, with
Phase change sizes ranging from 20 to 500 μm, is found in the reclaimed operating fluid. Analysis of temperature and
Capillary tube acoustic data indicates that, driven by spiking temperature difference, highly turbulent two-phase flow
Oscillation carries the saturated vapor bubbles from the evaporator to the subcooled condensation region in a very
short time of oscillation, turning vapor phase into oversaturated status. Rapid condensation accelerated
shrinkage of the vapor bubbles causing strong micro jet impingement to damage the pipe wall, radiating
acoustical signals.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cavitation starts from the local nucleation when heat is in-
jected into liquid or the local liquid flow pressure is reduced to be
lower than saturation pressure. As encountering subsequent cool-
ing or increase in the local pressure, these vapor bubbles implode
[1,2]. Collapse of the cavitation bubbles, in a very short time, could
generate impingement jets with high energy density to erode the
adjacent solid surface [3,4], and to emit acoustic and light energy
[5,6]. Cavitation is one of major causes of damage in some engi-
neering systems. It creates voids on a metal surface resulting in
surface fatigue in propellers or pipes that have large cross-section
area variations. Cavitation is usually divided into two categories:
inertial and non-inertial cavitation. Inertial cavitation is a passive
process in which generation of a void or bubble, collapse, and pro-
ducing a impingement erosion are due to rapid change of liquid
flow pressure without input of external energy. Inertial cavitation
occurs in nature when mantis shrimps or pistol shrimps strike to
move [7], as well as in the plant xylem during the season switch
[8]. In contrast, non-inertial cavitation is the process that bubble
formations in fluid are actively achieved by introduction of some
form of external energy, such as an acoustic field [9] or a laser
beam [10,11], to increase local liquid temperature above nucleation
point. In a smooth straight pipeline where flow pressure drop is
dominated by friction, the non-inertial cavitation is typically tied
E-mail address: steve.cai@ieee.org.
to nucleate boiling when heat is injected. As flow reaches the cold
region, vapor phase condenses. With the vast mass flow rate and
the limited heat exchange area, vapor bubble shrinkage gently pro-
ceeds without causing the destructive cavitation erosions. It has
been true until the capillary oscillation heat pipe emerged in the
early 1990s.
The oscillation heat pipe is a passive heat transfer system, made
of meandering capillary tubes [12]. It takes advantage of liquid-
vapor phase change to generate random pressure oscillations to
achieve mass and heat transfer between the heating and cool-
ing areas [13–15] As one of unique operation features, the os-
cillation heat pipe is able to radiate acoustically tinkling signals,
particularly at the startup transient period when the evaporator
responds to heat injection faster than the condenser, as well as
during steady operation when temperature difference temporar-
ily spikes. Because of factors, such as low fluid charge quality
(∼ 10 g), a constant cross-section area, and a limited traveling
distance (∼ 30–40 cm)/amplitude of oscillation motions, erosive
cavitation collapse was thought unlikely to occur in the capillary
pipes, nor linked to generation of the acoustic signals. As a result,
after decades that the operation characteristics have been recog-
nized, no scientific activities unveiled the mystery.
In this study, a test oscillation heat pipe was made of capillary
copper tubes with outer diameter of 3.2 mm and inner diameters
of 1.8 mm, respectively. The copper tube was carefully bended to
form 24 parallel pipes with connection between the tube start to

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physleta.2018.11.026
0375-9601/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Fig. 1. Capillary oscillation heat pipe: a) test copper prototype, b) schematic liq-
uid/vapor slug distributions after heat injection.
its adjacent end, as shown in Fig. 1a. To ensure good interior sur-
face cleaning, an un-looped structure that separated the charging
and vacuum ends was used. The interior of pipes was degreased
by alkaline solution, followed by 50%–50% sulfuric–phosphoric acid
cleaning and 30 mins rinse with DI water. After dried and evac-
uated, degassed distilled water ∼ 40 or 55% in volume fraction
working as operating fluid was charged. The testing prototype is
horizontally set. An electrical heater and an adjustable speed fan
are used to heat and cool the evaporation and condensation re-
gions. All the other sections are thermally insulated to minimize
the heat loss to be < 5%. Temperature measurement errors were
within ±0.5 ◦ C. Acoustic signals were analyzed by a decibel me-
ter with a 0.33 s time interval of measurement. Each test cycle
included transient and steady state tests at different operating
temperature ranging from 50 to 200 ◦ C, and took ∼ 50 hours. The
same test cycle was repeated 4 times before the prototype was cut
to open at both the evaporation and condensation ends.
Visualization was also performed in a transparent prototype
made of quartz (inner diameter ∼ 2 mm and 12 parallel tubes).
After heat was injected from the evaporator end, liquid and vapor
phase separated. Liquid phase slugs moved to the heat rejection
end while vapor slugs were pushed to the heat injection end, as
shown in Fig. 1b. As oscillations pushed the liquid slug to the heat-
ing region, nucleate boiling occurred within the liquid slug. The
nucleate site grew as heat injection continues, splitting the liquid
slug with a new born vapor bubble slug. At the same time, the
old vapor slug was shifted to the heat rejection region, condens-
ing and shrinking in size. The procedure resumed as the oscillation
motions was maintained.
Research effort was initiated to correlate acoustic signals to the
temperature fluctuations. For both transient startup and the steady
state, acoustic decibel intensity, as well as temperatures at both
the evaporator and condenser, were recorded simultaneously as
functions of testing time. Fig. 2 shows both acoustic and tempera-
ture variations during the startup transient period. Lab background
noise was at ∼ 45 DB. Responding to increases of temperature
difference, acoustic radiations spike, in accordance with the os-
cillation procedure that two-phase flow periodically cooled the
evaporation region and heating the condensation end. The acoustic
decibel magnitude is proportional to temperature difference be-
tween the evaporator and condenser. However, in the time scales,
the period of acoustic spikes was much shorter than temperature
variations, indicating a much faster energy release process than
heat transfer. The synchronized spiking behaviors between acous-
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Fig. 2. Acoustic signals responding to temperature fluctuations at the evaporator
and condenser regions. (For interpretation of the colors in the figure(s), the reader
is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 3. Temperatures variations during the transient and steady state, with 40% vol-
ume fraction in charge and 100 W input heat.
tics and temperature enabled us to merely use temperature data
for understanding what happened in the oscillating capillary pipes.
It was known that the oscillation heat pipe has a strong tran-
sient effect during the startup. The initial oscillation motions lag
behind heat input to the system. With lack of effective oscillat-
ing heat transfer, temperature at the heat injection region rose
faster than the condenser region. As oscillations were activated,
high decibel acoustic signals were radiated, driven by high tem-
perature difference exceeding 30 ◦ C (shown as the startup region
in Fig. 3). After 300 s’ operation, temperature difference between
the evaporator and condenser reached the steady state (shown as
the post-startup region), prior to the absolute temperatures which
extended another 600 s. Even at the steady state, temperature dif-
ference fluctuated, as shown in the right highlighted region in
Fig. 3. The fluctuated temperature difference can reach over 25 ◦ C,
accompanying with generation of acoustic tinkling signals.
After completion of four/200-hour test cycles, the capillary os-
cillation heat pipes are cut longitudinally after reclaiming operat-
ing fluid. Under a microscope, interior surface structures between
the heat injection and rejection regions show significant differ-
ence. As shown in Fig. 4a, numerous micro pits are observed at
the heat rejection/condensation region, covering the entire interior
surface. The diameter of the surface etching pits varies from 20 to
300 μm, with pit population density over 20/mm2 . Some irregu-
lar and large pits were likely results of multiple overlapped etches.
Copper debris was also found in the reclaimed operating fluid. The
size of the copper debris is consistent with the surface pits, with
JID:PLA AID:25407 /SCO Doctopic: Plasma and fluid physics
S.Q. Cai / Physics Letters A ••• (••••) •••–•••
Fig. 4. Tube interiors after 200-hour test cycles: a) etching pits found at the heat
rejection region, b) copper debris in the reclaimed fluid, c) smooth surface at heat
injection region.
the longitudinal dimensions ranging from 20 to 200 μm. Similar to
the surface pits, most debris have irregular shapes, in the form of
thin metal sheets, as shown in Fig. 4b. The combination of surface
etching and debris implied that the metal was chopped off from
surface. In comparison, the interior at the heat injection/evapora-
tion region, like the new copper tube, retains shining and smooth
(shown in Fig. 4c). No etching pits are observed. Tiny wrinkles
were made through the tube extrusion process during manufac-
turing.
Characteristics of two-phase flow in oscillation motions, acous-
tically tinkling signals, etching pits on the interior surface, and
copper debris in operating fluid provide explicit evidences for oc-
currence of cavitation erosions in the capillary pipes. It indicated
that collapse of vapor bubble created cavitation implosion and ero-
sive jets. As the micro jets impinged on the interior surface of the
pipe, acoustic energy, reflected by tinkling signals, was radiated.
High density and nonhomogeneous etches significantly increase
the surface roughness and flow resistance, which retards two-
phase motions and extends liquid superheating and subcooling
time at the evaporator and condenser regions. As a result, tem-
perature difference at the steady state conditions increases versus
test cycles as surface etching by cavitation collapses gets worse.
Experimental verification of this trend was plotted in Fig. 5. At op-
erating temperature of 170 ◦ C (defined as temperature at the heat
injection region), the capillary oscillation heat pipe demonstrated
the best heat transfer performance with the minimal temperature
difference of 20.5 ◦ C [13]. The temperature effect set a common
optimal point for all four test cycles. With increase of the test
time/cycles, temperature difference at the optimal point increases
from 20.5 to 28.2 ◦ C irreversibly.
Rapid condensation of the vapor bubble or collapse of cavi-
tation requires immediate change of saturation temperature/pres-
sure. Without significant pressure drop in the capillary oscillation
pipes, the only way to achieve this goal is to quickly remove heat
energy from the liquid slug, oversaturating the vapor phase. This
becomes possible when the oscillation velocity was high enough
that the saturated vapor bubbles/slugs generated at the evapora-
tion region were isothermally carried to the condensation region
by liquid slugs. Meanwhile, liquid phase around the vapor bubbles
had strong convective heat exchange with external environment.
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Fig. 5. Temperature difference increased with test time/cycles at the optimal operat-
ing temperature when heat input was at 400 W and liquid volume charge fraction
was at ∼ 55%.
Saturation temperature of liquid reduces faster than vapor phase,
re-setting the vapor bubble at the oversaturated condition. The
timely lag of heat transfer between the two phases is the root
cause of strong cavitation collapses or surface erosions in the cap-
illary pipe.
To oversaturate vapor phase, heat exchange between liquid flow
and external environment must be very effective. With < 0.1 s os-
cillating time, liquid/vapor two phase flow traveled from the end to
end of the pipe. The flow speed could reach 2–3 m/s, enabling tur-
bulence flow developed in the capillary pipe. The turbulence flow
greatly increased heat exchange rate to ambient and prepared the
condition for erosive collapses of cavitation.
Not all oscillation ended with strong cavitation etches or radi-
ation of acoustic signals. In the transparent prototype, majority of
oscillations did not generate new vapor bubbles at the evapora-
tion region or collapse at the condensation region. The oscillation
amplitude was limited to a degree that latent heat of the vapor
bubble/liquid slug is partially exchanged before next oscillation re-
turned the liquid or vapor slug back to its original position. The
frontier of the vapor/liquid interface oscillated between the evapo-
ration and condensation regions, as shown in Fig. 6a & schematic
diagram of Fig. 6e. Accompanying with the partial gain and dissipa-
tion of heat, the vapor bubble repeatedly varied in volume without
causing erosive collapses and radiating acoustic energy. This situ-
ation responds to the optimal operation condition (low tempera-
ture difference spikes at the steady state, e.g. between 1300 s and
1400 s in Fig. 3) at which both the oscillation velocity and satura-
tion temperature difference between evaporation and condensation
regions were significantly reduced.
Longitudinal temperature difference of the capillary heat pipe
could reach above 50 ◦ C during startup or at the low operating
temperature. As discussed in Figs. 2 & 3, acoustic signals and ero-
sive cavitation collapse occurred at where the temperature differ-
ence spiked. The high temperature difference increased both oscil-
lation amplitude and velocity, delivering vapor mass all the way
to the end of condensation region and re-setting vapor bubbles to
the oversaturated condition. As the vapor bubble condensed, highly
turbulent flow and shear force could tear small vapor bubbles
from the main body, as shown in Fig. 6b & c [16]. Unfortunately,
impingement jet images were not able to be obtained, largely be-
cause of randomness of the occurrence locations in oscillation flow.
A group of small vapor bubbles were observed at an end of the os-
cillation motion, demonstrating wrecks of the collapsed cavitation
[17].
To understand the dictating parameters, this physical process
was analyzed based on the principle of energy equilibrium. When
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Fig. 6. Cavitation and collapse in capillary pulsating heat pipe.
a vapor bubble is carried by liquid flow to the condensation region
(shown in Fig. 6f), heat energy exchanged with external environ-
ment equals to the sum of the reduced vapor latent heat and liquid
specific heat.
h f g dm v + C p ml dT l = A c h i ( T l − T w )dt
Here, m v is vapor condensation mass, h f g is latent heat, h i is the
convective heat transfer coefficient on the tube interior surface, T l
and T w are temperatures of liquid and on the tube inner wall,
respectively. Given a constant background pressure in the mean-
dering pipes, condensation collapse of vapor bubble occurs in a
much shorter time period vs. the sensible heat exchange of liquid,
seeing Fig. 2. Phase change is the dominant heat transfer mecha-
nism. The ratio between vapor latent heat and liquid specific heat
mv hfg
τ=  1.0
ml C p  T l
Cavitation collapse of the vapor bubble can be treated as an
isothermal process.
h f g dm v = A c h i ( T l − T w )dt
Phase change is the dominant mechanism for exchanging energy
when two-phase flow reaches the condensation region. In Eq. (3),
the convection surface area, A c , equals to
A c = 2π rl
Here, l is the two-phase slug length and r is the tube radius. As-
suming the initial vapor bubble is spherical with radius equals to
the tube radius, l = 2r. Eq. (3) is rewritten as
dr hi ·  T
vr = = (5)
dt h f g· ρv
Here,  T = T l − T w . Temperature T l represented the evaporator
temperature in the isothermal process. Therefore,  T reflected
temperature difference between the evaporation and condensation
regions. m v /ml in Eq. (2) is an indicator of vapor void fraction or
liquid volume charge fraction. As a result, vapor bubble shrinking
speed, equivalent with the jet impingement velocity, is correlated
to the longitudinal temperature difference, liquid volume charge
fraction, as well as the interior convective heat transfer coefficient.
Given fluid properties and pipe dimensions, the heat transfer
coefficient is a function of Reynolds number, Re, in the Dittus–
Boelter equation [18].
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kl
h i = 0.0135 Re0.8 P r 0.3333 ∼ f ( T ) (6)
r
Re number is indirectly correlated to the temperature difference
that determines how much heat energy is reserved at the evapo-
rator to generate oscillation motions. In addition, the heat transfer
(1) coefficient increases as surface gets rougher [19], which means that
cavitation erosions occur more often in aged capillary pipes.
As a summary of the study, we presented explicit evidences of
cavitation erosions in capillary oscillation pipes and unveiled the
root causes of acoustic noise radiation although it has been rec-
ognized for decades. Discussion of the phenomenon and its mech-
anism indicates that temperature difference between the evapora-
tion and condensation regions, volume charge fraction of operating
fluid, as well as service period of the capillary pipe are the key fac-
tors for controlling the erosive cavitation collapses. Smooth pipes
operating at the optimal temperature range with high fluid charge
fraction would help to reduce likelihood of erosive cavitation in
(2)
scientific and industrial applications.
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