Numerical Simulation of Hydrofoil Cavitation

Abstract

A contrastive analysis was conducted on the lift and drag performance, pressure and gas-phase volume fraction of NACA4412 hydrofoil under different conditions of the cavitation number and the angle of attack based on CFD. The results are obtained as follows: after hydrofoil cavitation, the lift coefficient decreased and the drag coefficient increased with the decrease of the cavitation number, and supercavitation can reduce the drag coefficient locally; the pressure difference between the upper and lower surfaces of the hydrofoil decreased and the cavitation zone on the upper surface became larger with the decrease of the cavitation number; the cavitation zone of the hydrofoil originated from the leading edge; the length of the cavitation zone under large cavitation numbers first increased and then decreased with the increase of the angle of attack, and the zone moved towards the leading edge; the cavitation zone under small cavitation numbers covered almost the entire upper surface of the hydrofoil.