Numerical investigation of unsteady sheet/cloud cavitation over a hydrofoil in thermo-sensitive fluid

Abstract

The sheet/cloud cavitation is of a great practical interest since the highly unsteady feature involves significant fluctuations around the body where the cavitation occurs. Moreover, the cavitating flows are complicated due to the thermal effects. The present paper numerically studies the unsteady cavitating flows around a NACA0015 hydrofoil in the fluoreketone and the liquid nitrogen with particular emphasis on the thermal effects and the dynamic evolution. The numerical results and the experimental measurements are generally in agreement. It is shown that the temperature distributions are closely related to the cavity evolution. Meanwhile, the temperature drop is more evident in the liquid nitrogen for the same cavitation number, and the thermal effect suppresses the occurrence and the development of the cavitating flow, especially at a low temperature in the fluoroketone. Furthermore, the cavitating flows are closely related to the complicated vortex structures. The distributions of the pressure around the hydrofoil is a major factor of triggering the unsteady sheet/cloud cavitation. At last, it is interesting to find that one sees a significant thermal effect on the cavitation transition, a small value of σ/2α is required in the thermo-sensitive fluids to achieve the similar cavitation transition that occurs in the water.