The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), such as the original k-omega two-equation closures, have been very popular in providing good prediction for a wide variety of flows with presently available computational resource. But for cavitating flows, the above equations noticeably over-predict turbulent production and hence effective viscosity. In this paper, the detached eddy simulation (DES) method for time-dependent turbulent cavitating flows is investigated. To assess the state-of-the-art of computational capabilities, different turbulence models including the widely used RANS model and DES model are conducted. Firstly, in order to investigate the grid dependency in computations, different grid sizes are adopted in the computation. Furthermore, the credibility of DES model is supported by the unsteady cavitating flows over a 2D hydrofoil. The results show that the DES model can effectively reduce the eddy viscosities. From the experimental validations regarding the force analysis, frequency and the unsteady cavity visualizations, more favorable agreement with experimental visualizations and measurements are obtained by DES model. DES model is better able to capture unsteady phenomena including cavity length and the resulting hydrodynamic characteristics, reproduces the time-averaged velocity quantitatively around the hydrofoil, and yields more acceptable and unsteady dynamics features. The DES model has shown to be effective in improving the overall predictive capability of unsteady cavitating flows.
