An improved laminar–turbulent transition cavitation model using the IDDES method

Abstract

Prediction of the detachment positions of sheet cavitation remains an unsolved problem, being not only dependent on local pressure but also closely related to the boundary layer transition. For hydrofoils, traditional cavitation models tend to predict premature cavity detachment positions. In the study reported here, to obtain cavity detachment positions that match experimental results, improvements are made to both turbulence models and cavitation models. A scale-resolving transition turbulence model is established by incorporating transport equations to represent boundary layer transition that are based on the improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) method. The intermittency γ, representing the probability of turbulence at a specific point in space, is introduced into the homogeneous cavitation model to account for the influence of the laminar–turbulent transition on the sheet cavitation detachment position. Numerical results show that the IDDES-based transition turbulence model combines transition and scale-resolving capabilities. The improved turbulence transition cavitation model proposed here is shown to be able to accurately predict the detachment position of sheet cavitation around two-dimensional hydrofoils and a typical axisymmetric ITTC body.