The word "cavitation" is correct in written English.
It can be used to describe the formation of bubbles or cavities in fluids due to a decrease in pressure. For example, "The cavitation in the water caused by the boat's propeller created a loud noise."
The diesels, however, normally rotated faster than was desirable for the propellers of large ships because the high speeds of the huge propellers tended to create hollowed-out areas within the water around the propeller (cavitation), with resultant loss of thrust.
If the inlet pressure is too small, cavitation (the formation of a vacuous space in the pump, which is normally occupied by liquid) will occur.
The energy forms bubbles in the liquid, a phenomenon called acoustic cavitation.
In 2002 Rusi Taleyarkhan and colleagues at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., claimed to have observed a statistically significant increase in nuclear emissions of products of fusion reactions (neutrons and tritium) during acoustic cavitation experiments with chilled deuterated (bombarded with deuterium) acetone.
This so-called cavitation leads to erosion pitting as well as to vibrations and must be avoided by the careful shaping of all blade passages and of the exit passage or draft tube.
Vaporization of liquid in the suction line is a common cause of cavitation.
Volute centrifugal pumps can pump liquids containing solid particles, but, when pumping liquids containing more than a small amount of vapour, their suction is broken by cavitation.
Runners for low-head units are usually made of cast mild steel, sometimes with stainless-steel protection added at locations subject to cavitation (see below).
But such a foil can produce excessive drag at sub-cavitation speeds.
By starting with larger, millimetre-sized cavitations (bubbles) that had been deuterated in the acetone liquid, the researchers claimed to have produced densities and temperatures sufficient to induce fusion reactions just before the bubbles broke up.
Dr Taleyarkhan and his colleagues used a technique called acoustic cavitation the imploding of a bubble created by sound waves passing through a liquid to generate the pressures and temperatures required for nuclear fusion.Bubble troubleThe team created these bubbles in acetone, which has molecules containing six hydrogen atoms.
