Investigation of a re-entrant jet reflection at an inclined cavity closure line

Cavitation on two-dimensional hydrofoils with swept leading edges always displays some 3-dimensional effects. It is well known that the cavity closure on such hydrofoil is not perpendicular to the channel walls, but is curved in a distinctive pattern. The cavitation pocket is longer in the region where the hydrofoil is the shortest. Also the dynamics of cavitation is very distinctive. In the region where the hydrofoil is the longest attached and steady cavitation with no cloud separation exists. On the other side, where the hydrofoil is the shortest, cavitation cloud separations occur. Different explanations for this pattern were proposed in the past but they have not jet been clearly confirmed neither experimentally nor by numerical simulation. In the present paper a clear explanation supported by the numerical simulation and also by experimental measurements, is given. (c) 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.