On ventilated supercavities moving horizontally near free surface

Abstract

By means of open source CFD tool OpenFOAM platform, a multiphase solver capable to deal with two phases flows is used to investigate ventilated supercavities. The VOF (volume of fraction) method is employed in order to capture cavity interface and the free surface. The main objective of this work is to investigate ventilated supercavity generated after a disk-cavitator which moves horizontally near a free surface. Most of the work in this research has been focused on the shape of supercavity and its asymmetry. Furthermore, two distinct cavity closure types, i.e. the re-entrant jet (RJ) and the twin vortex (TV) and are discussed separately to compare their gas leakage mechanisms at different submergence ratio. Numerical results indicate that the air-water free surface will have a significant influence on the cavity surface curvature and gas shedding process. Under the influence of free surface, the length diameter ratio of ventilated cavitation increases with H‾ decrease with decrease. The influence of free boundary on the upper surface of cavitation interface is greater than that on the lower surface. When Fr number and ventilation volume are constant, when approaching the free surface, the interface curvature of ventilation cavitation will increase. The deflection of cavitation axis is mainly affected by gravity and free surface. When the Fr number is small, the cavitation axis will be slightly disturbed. When the Fr number is large, the cavitation axis deflects reversely. These may give meaningful references for the design of surface vehicles.