Ultrasonically induced cavitation (UIC) is a physical process that helps intensify heat and mass transfer in chemical processes. The technique involves the application of ultrasonic waves to the liquid phase. UIC has been successfully applied to the processing of both fossil and bio-derived hydrocarbon mixtures, polymer production and metal oxide leaching. Investigations of the underlying mechanisms of heat and mass transfer enhancement using UIC require a comprehensive understanding of bubble nucleation, growth, and collapse.

Enhanced chemical activity is observed because of the improved mixing, particularly in the areas where cavitation bubble clouds form. Consequently, the ability to predict the location of the bubble cloud is critical. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models are extremely effective in simulating UIC in complex domains. Existing CFD models have limited applications because they do not describe the bubble nucleation phenomenon. The integration of a nucleation model in the CFD framework leads to higher modeling flexibility and better prediction of the areas interested by cavitation.

We present a modification of an in-house CFD solver aimed to simulate UIC in complex domains. The modification consists of the addition of a predictive method to estimate the nucleation rate based on the Classical Nucleation Theory which improves the previously used empirical law.