Calculation of cavitation evolution and associated turbulent kinetic energy transport around a NACA66 hydrofoil

Abstract

The physical mechanism of flow unsteadiness is one of the key problems in cavitating flow. Significant efforts have been exerted to explain the cavitation-vortex interaction mechanism. As well, the process of kinetic energy transport during the evolution of unsteady cavitating flow must be elucidated. In this work, 2D calculations of cavitating flow around a NACA66 hydrofoil were performed based on the open source software OpenFOAM. The modified shear stress transport k-ω turbulence model, which considers curvature and turbulent eddy viscosity corrections, was employed to close the governing equations. The Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model was adopted to capture the cavitation phase change process. Numerical results showed reasonable consistency with the results of the experiments conducted by Leroux et al. (2004). The results showed that cavitation promotes turbulence intensity and flow unsteadiness around the hydrofoil. During the attached sheet cavity growth stage, high-value regions of turbulent kinetic energy are located substantially at the interface of the cavity, particularly at the rear portion of the cavity region. During the cloud cavity shed-off stage, the cavity begins to break off and the maximum value of turbulent kinetic energy is observed inside the shed cavity. Finally, the influence of cavitation on the turbulence intensity is illustrated using the turbulent kinetic energy transport equation, which shows that the pressure diffusion and turbulent transport terms dominate as cavitation occurs. In addition, cavitation promotes turbulence production and increases dissipation with fluid viscosity and flow unsteadiness. The viscous transport term only acts in the cavitation shedding stage under large-scale vortex shedding. Overall, these findings are of considerable interest in engineering applications.