Influence of Flow Field's Radial Dimension on Ventilated Supercavitating Flow

Abstract

To investigate the influence of flow field's radial dimension on the flow of the portion gas-leakage supercavity, based on the two-fluid multiphase flow model and SST turbulence model, considering the compressibility of ventilated gas, a 3D simulation model of ventilated supercavity was established to simulate the flow of the supercavitation, which was consistent with water tunnel experiment. The effect of flow field's radial dimension on ventilated supercavity's dimension and pressure distribution was studied. The results show that flow field's radial dimension has a significant effect on the ventilated supercavity's dimension and pressure distribution. When flow field's radial dimension ratio is 6.5 times lower than the maximum diameter of supercavity, the supercavity cannot be formed to completely enclose the underwater vehicle. With the increase of flow field's radial dimension, the pressure inside and outside the supercavity decreases, and there is a pronounced increase in supercavity dimension. When flow field's radial dimension ratio is 54.0 times greater than the maximum diameter of supercavity, the dimension and pressure distribution of ventilated supercavity remain unchanged, which coincides with the theoretical results. In addition, the calculation results provide a criterion for simulating the shape of ventilated supercavity in the open environment, which can be used to guide engineering practice.

Keywords

• ventilated supercavity
• flow field
• supercavity's dimension
• pressure distribution
• multiphase flow
• sst turbulence model
• underwater vehicle