Computational Analyses of Cavitating Flows in Cryogenic Liquid Hydrogen

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the fundamental characteristics and the thermodynamic effects of cavitating flows in liquid hydrogen. For this purpose, numerical simulation of cavitating flows are conducted over a three dimensional hydrofoil in liquid hydrogen. Firstly, the efficiency of this computational methodology is validated through comparing the simulation results with the experimental measurements of pressure and temperature. Secondly, after analysing the cavitating flows in liquid hydrogen and water, the characteristics under cryogenic conditions are highlighted. The results show that the thermodynamic effects play a significant role in the cavity structure and the mass transfer, the dimensionless mass transfer rate of liquid hydrogen is much larger, and the peak value is about ninety times as high as water at room temperature. Furthermore, a parametric study of cavitating flows on hydrofoil is conducted by considering different cavitation number and dimensionless thermodynamic coefficient. The obtained results provide an insight into the thermodynamic effect on the cavitating flows.