Numerical Prediction of Cavitation Erosion Intensity in Cavitating Flows around a Clark Y 11.7% Hydrofoil

Abstract

A numerical prediction method of cavitation erosion is proposed. In this method, the analysis of bubbles in cavitating flows is performed and the intensity of cavitation erosion is evaluated by the impact pressure induced by spherical bubble collapse. In the present study, two-dimensional cavitating flow around the Clark Y 11.7 % hydrofoil is used to examine the proposed numerical prediction method. The proposed numerical method predicts that the intensities of cavitation erosion in noncavitating, attached cavitating and pseudo-supercavitating flows are far weaker than the intensity of cavitation erosion in a transient cavitating flow, and the intensity in the vicinity of the sheet cavity termination is high. These results correspond well to experimental results, and it is confirmed that systematic erosion characteristics are generally captured by this method. Furthermore, the velocity dependence of cavitation erosion is examined, and it is found that the exponent n in the relation between the intensity I and main flow velocity Uin (I ∝ Uinn) becomes large when the bubble radius is large and ranges between 4.3 and 7.0 in the present study. According to the bubble dynamics, the ambient pressure and the rate of increases in pressure increase as the main flow velocity, and the maximum internal pressure increase. Therefore, it is thought that smaller bubbles cause cavitation erosion when the main flow velocity is large.