Numerical and Experimental Research on Cavitating Flows

Abstract

In hydrodynamic equipment the cavitation usually is considered as a harmful physical phenomenon because it is an important source of material erosion, noise radiation and component damage. However, the potential reduction in drag associated with supercavitation has brought more engineering interest about submerged bodies. This paper focuses on the authors’ recent work in the field. Steady and unsteady flows of natural and ventilated cavitation were systematically studied through experimental observation and numerical simulation. A computer code including several HEM type cavitation models was developed and used to simulate a variety of natural cavitating flows. Some significant problems concerning ventilated cavitating flows, such as the critical status, hysteresis, surface wave, wall effect and ventilation manner, were investigated. A number of experimental phenomena and numerical results are presented here.