This talk will introduce a fascinating phenomenon ‘Cavitation’, which is consisted of many tiny bubbles.

It was discovered 100 years ago when Barnaby and Parsons found that the formation of vapour bubbles on blades was responsible for the propeller failure of a British high speed warship ‘HMS Daring’ with a design speed of 27 knots.It damages any materials no matter how good they are. It likes a cancer to human body, engineers ‘hate’ it very much but very difficult to avoid & eliminate.The talk will explain the secret underlying the enormous power of these tiny bubbles and why people ‘hate’ cavitation.

However, very recent, it turns out that cavitation can do many good things for us. Cavitation research suddenly becomes so popular and people ‘love’ it so much that many organisations, universities and even hospitals join in this research. Among those good things, cavitation can cure incurable cancers and crush various stones in human body. The talk will also explain why people suddenly love cavitation and what good things it can do.Experiences of the speaker own work from ‘hate’ to ‘love’ will also be introduced.

主讲人介绍：

李胜才，教授，博士。现任华威大学流体动力研究中心首席研究员。从事水轮机空蚀及机理研究40年，在空泡机理和抗空蚀水轮机的研究方面做出了开拓性的工作。由他主编的Cavitation of Hydraulic Machinery（水力机械空化）一书于2000年出版以来获得了国际同行的广泛认同，已十余次被国际一级刊物和评论文章引用并经常被指定为国际讲学班的参考书。他在EPSRC（英国工程与自然研究理事会）资助下自行设计，建设成一套新型空化试验装置，于2004年投入使用。目前正在验证他提出来的空泡与边壁相互作用的马尔科夫随机模型和空化与沙粒耦合作用模型。