Cavitation regime detection through Proper Orthogonal Decomposition: Dynamics analysis of the sheet cavity on a grooved convergent-divergent nozzle

The unsteady character of the sheet cavity dynamics on the suction side of hydrofoils, on convergent-divergent nozzles or on blades in turbines and propellers is responsible for many issues like erosion, noise and vibrations. This two-phase flow dynamics is investigated using a robust method based on Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD). This method is applied to sequences of sheet cavity images, in order to identify the cavitation regimes (sheet cavity or cloud cavitation regimes). Once this method is validated on a reference case, POD calculation is used to evaluate the efficiency of a passive control method. Different longitudinal grooved surfaces are machined on the diverging wall of a Venturi. The grooves geometry allows to change the cavitation regime for a fixed cavitation number, and even to avoid the cloud cavitation shedding, which may damage structures. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.