Cavitation research performed at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Techniques Avancees

French defence research on cavitation phenomena performed over an eight year period is summarized. Theoretical and experimental investigations of bubble cavitation, vortex cavitation, and supercavitation are reported. Spherical and nonspherical bubble deformations in a flow are examined, with particular attention given to flow conditions in which spherical bubble shape is maintained. A bubble is demonstrated to oscillate explosively along a streamline only if the cavitation number and the pressure gradient are significantly smaller than one. A spherical model is defined that is universally applicable to noise, erosion, and performance losses due to cavitation. An asymptotic model for cavitating flow is developed for the case when the cavitation number is much less than one, taking into account the effects of gravity, solid walls, and a free surface. Finally, vortex cavitation is studied with consideration given to bubble capture in a vortex, showing that the characteristic time of capture is proportional to the square of the initial distance.