On suitable CFD setups for cavitation dynamics

Abstract

In the current work, cavitating simulations were carried out with different setups including different mesh resolutions, time steps, RANS and IDDES turbulence models to investigate their influence on cavitation dynamics. The simulations were conducted for the Delft Twist hydrofoil, for which comprehensive experimental data is available. The open-source CFD solver OpenFoam is adopted because further model improvement is straightforward. The hydrodynamics, cavity volume, and cavitation shedding frequency are compared between different simulations. It is found that a good mesh for hydrodynamics is by far not enough to obtain appropriate cavitation dynamics. The turbulence model plays a prominent role on cavitation dynamics. The current work provides a valuable reference for choosing suitable setups to simulate cavitation dynamics.