Numerical Simulation of Natural Cavitating Flow over Axisymmetric Bodies

The hydrodynamic characteristics of bodies are greatly affected by cavitation. Coupling with natural cavitaion model, a multiphase CFD method is developed and is employed to simulate supercavitating and partial cavitating flows over axisymmetric bodies using FLUENT 6.2. The results of supercavitation of a disk cavitator agree well with the boundary element method (BEM), the analytical relations and available experimental results. The present computations and the BEM results are compared with experiments for partial cavitating flows over three typical axisymmetric bodies and the results are discussed. Limitations are on the pressure prediction in the cavity closure region for the BEM, although fairly good quantitative agreement is obtained for three axisymmetric bodies at most of cavitation region. The present computational model on cavitating flows are validated, offering references and bases for hydrodynamic researches.