Evaluation of the Cavitation Fluid Characteristics of the Bullet across the Medium into the Water at Different Velocities

This paper studies the evolution and fluid distribution characteristics of a high-speed projectile’s cavity in the water based on joint research, a method involving experiment and numerical simulation. Specifically, we develop an experimental platform and a numerical calculation model for a high-speed projectile to observe its initial cavity evolution characteristics in the water at different velocities and close ranges. Additionally, this work investigates the evolution mechanism of the cavitation process and its fluid distribution law inside the cavity and studies the evolution characteristics of the cavitation stage under different velocities. The results reveal that after the projectile enters the water, the cavity is gourd-shaped and symmetrical, with a necking phenomenon at the tail and the cavity falling off. The cavitation process can be divided into the surface closure, saturation, deep closure, and collapse stages according to the fluid distribution changes in the cavity. Suppose the projectile has a certain speed with the water, its velocity increases. In that case, the cavity generation rate decreases, the growth rate of the water vapor volume in the cavity decreases, the peak water vapor volume content reduces, and the volume of air in the saturation phase of the cavity becomes increases having a range of 6% to 9%. Additionally, the cavity surface closure dimensionless time grows logarithmically as the velocity changes from 0 m/s to 500 m/s, the cavity saturation dimensionless time decreases approximately linearly, and the cavity depth closure dimensionless time is unaffected by velocity changes.