Dynamic Reuleaux Venturi with Boundary-Imposed Swirl

In-line cavitation is relevant to many continuous processes; however, its intensity depends on flow rate, available pressure, temperature, fluid properties, and plant conditions, complicating the maintenance of a repeatable regime within a prescribed band. This paper presents the DVRA, an actuated Venturi module with a Reuleaux triangular cross-section for in-operation regulation of hydrodynamic cavitation through device configuration. The novelty lies in combining two degrees of freedom—an in-operation adjustable hydraulic throat and boundary-imposed swirl forcing—within a compact in-line device: all rotation is confined to the module, and no rotation of the process line is required. The hydraulic throat is tuned via an actuated elastomeric liner, while swirl is generated by external end collars. Reproducible operational conventions are introduced together with a normalized input set and a configuration-space formalism that distinguishes admissible from achievable configurations. Regulation is cast as a control-oriented inverse mapping given a target band for an in-line estimated cavitation indicator and standard industrial measurements of flow rate, pressure, and temperature; configuration commands are selected to keep the indicator within bounds. The contribution is methodological and provides an implementable basis; comprehensive validation and performance benchmarking are outside the scope of this paper and will be reported separately.