The volume-of-flow method combined with the Rayleigh–Plesset equation is well established for the computation of cavitation, i.e., the generation and transportation of vapor bubbles inside a liquid flow resulting in cloud, sheet or streamline cavitation. There are, however, limitations, if this method is applied to a restricted flow between two adjacent walls and the bubbles’ size is of the same magnitude as that of the clearance between the walls. This work presents experimental and numerical results of the bubble generation and its transportation in a Couette-type flow under the influence of shear and a strong pressure gradient which are typical for journal bearings or hydraulic seals. Under the impact of variations of the film thickness, the VoF method produces reliable results if bubble diameters are less than half the clearance between the walls. For larger bubbles, the wall contact becomes significant and the bubbles adopt an elliptical shape forced by the shear flow and under the influence of a strong pressure gradient. Moreover, transient changes in the pressure result in transient cavitation, which is captured by high-speed imaging providing material to evaluate transient, three-dimensional computations of a two-phase flow.

The research of cavitation in narrow gap flows, e.g., lubrication films in journal bearings or squeeze film dampers, is a challenging task due to spatial restrictions combined with a high time-resolution. Typically, the lubrication film thickness is in the range of a few microns and the characteristic time for bubble generation and collapse is less than a few milliseconds. The authors have developed a journal bearing model experiment, which is designed according to similarity laws providing fully similar flow conditions to real journal flows while offering ideal access to the flow by means of optical measurement equipment. This work presents the high-speed photography of bubble evolution and transportation in a Stokes-type flow under the influence of shear and a strong pressure gradient which are typical for lubricant films. A paramount feature of the experiment is the dynamic variation (increase/decrease) of the minimum film thickness which triggers the onset of cavitation in narrow gap flows. Results presented in the work on hand include the time-resolved data of the gas release rate and the transient expansion of gas bubbles. Both parameters are necessary to set up numerical models for the computation of two-phase flows.