Numerical investigation on added mass and damping force coefficient of an underwater vehicle in cavitating flows

Abstract

The objective of this paper is mainly to study the influence of cavitation on the added mass and damping force coefficient. Based on Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations, the dynamic mesh is used to calculate the added mass, and the rotating coordinate frame method is applied to research on the damping force coefficient. In order to obtain fluid damping force coefficients, the movement pattern is set as a uniform circular motion. Then the additional force coefficient and pitch damping moment coefficient could be obtained using the method of least squares. The result shows that the method to calculate added mass is reliable by comparing with the analytical solution. With the cavitation number decreasing, the absolute value of the added mass of λ22 decreases and λ26 increases. What's more, both the absolute value of damping force and moment coefficient decrease substantially with the development of cavity when the cavitation number is larger than 0.45. However, with the cavitation number less than 0.45, the un-symmetric cavity is more prominent, the absolute value of damping force and moment coefficient increase slightly. This is probably caused by the strengthened pressure peak at the suction side induced by the re-entrant flow.