Numerical simulation of the cavitation micro-jet velocity and erosion on a plane-convex hydrofoil with semicylindrical obstacle

Abstract

The present study deals with the numerical study of the cavitation micro–jet velocity and erosion on a plane–convex hydrofoil with semicylindrical obstacle, which induces a big cluster of cavities with a strong erosive power. The proposed model predicts micro-jet velocities based on energy conservation by assuming potential and kinetic energies at the start and the end of the cavity collapses. Homogeneous mixture flow, implicit LES and Zwart-Gerber-Belamri cavitation model have been used for the numerical simulation of the unsteady cavitating flow using OpenFOAM, whilst for the micro-jet estimation, Python language coupled with OpenFOAM’s calculator have been used. Results clearly show that the implemented model captures adequately the phenomenon and enables to identify attacked areas. Outcomes agree reasonably with the experimental results obtained by Escaler at the High Speed Cavitation Tunnel of the ´ Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Furthermore, the proposed model has been compared with Li’s and Peters’ ones for a better understating of the improvements.