The experimental and numerical studies of formation and collapse processes of ventilated supercavitating flow

The aim of this paper is to investigate the ventilated cavitating flow behavior, through experimental and numerical methods. The experiments are performed for a test model placed in a water tunnel and a high-speed camera is used to image the formation and collapse of the supercavity. For the numerical simulations, Ansys CFX commercial software is employed to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations and additional transport equation for the liquid volume fraction in the unsteady condition. Both the experimental observation and numerical prediction show a hysteresis behavior for ventilated supercavity in which the value of the air entrainment coefficient required to maintain the supercavity in the formation process is less than the amount required to form it. The good agreement observed between the numerical prediction and experimental data, revealed the accuracy and capability of the numerical scheme. Also, the numerical simulation shows that the variations in the supercavity length, in addition to the air entrainment, are a function of the air leakage regime from the closure region of supercavity.