Numerical investigation of supercavity geometry and gas leakage behavior for the ventilated supercavities with the twin-vortex and the re-entrant jet modes

Abstract

To investigate the supercavity geometry and gas flow structure for the supercavities with two closure types under the different flow conditions, an inhomogeneous multiphase model with the SST turbulence model was established, and validated by experimental results. The results show that two distinct regions exist inside the supercavity, which include the downstream flow region along the gas-water interface and the reverse flow region. For the twin-vortex supercavity, the internal gas leaks from the supercavity boundary by two paths: the supercavity surface and the two-vortex tubes. Increasing Froude number leads to more internal gas stripped from the supercavity surface. Two types of gas loss exist for the re-entrant jet supercavity with high Froude number, one type is the steady process of gas loss, and the major gas-leaking path is the supercavity surface rather than supercavity closure region. The other type is the unsteady periodic ejection, and the gas cluster of periodic ejection is merely a small part of the gas stored inside the supercavity.

Keywords

• Ventilated supercavity
• Supercavity geometry
• Supercavitation flow structure
• Gas leakage behavior
• Supercavity closure modes