INTERFERENCE OF SIDE STRUT WITH THE NATURAL CAVITATING FLOWS AROUND A SUBMERGED VEHICLE IN WATER TUNNEL EXPERIMENTS

To apply the measurements of model experiment in water tunnel to the actual sailing condition, it is necessary to know accurately the strut effect and its rule. In the present work, the corresponding interferences of one-side strut and two-side strut on the natural cavitating flows around a submerged vehicle in water tunnel were investigated numerically, using the homogeneous equilibrium two-phase model coupled with a natural cavitation model. The numerical simulation results show that the strut types have distinct effects on the hydrodynamic properties. For the same given upstream velocity and downstream pressure, the existence of the strut leads to an increment of natural cavitation number, reduces the low-pressure region and depresses the pressure on the vehicle surface near the sides of strut. In the case of given cavitaiton number, the influences of the two-side strut on the drag and lift coefficients are both enhanced along with the increment of attack angle, however the influence of the one-side strut gradually gets stronger on the drag coefficient but weaker on the lift coefficient contrarily. In addition, based on the present numerical results, a correction method by introducing the sigmoidal logistic function is proposed to eliminate the interference from the foil-shaped strut.

Experimental Investigation on the Pressure Characteristics of Cavity Closure Region

The most complicated component in cavitating flow and pressure distribution is the flow in the cavity closure line. The cavitating flow and pressure distribution provide critical aspects of flow field details in the region. The integral of pressure results of the hydrodynamic forces, indicate domination in the design of a supercavitating vehicle. An experiment was performed in a water tunnel to investigate the pressure characteristics of the cavity closure region. Ventilation methods were employed to generate artificial cavity, and the ventilation rate was adjusted accordingly to obtain the desired cavity length. An array of pressure transducers was laid down the cavity closure line to capture pressure distribution in this region. The experimental results show that there is a pressure peak in the cavity closure region, and the rise rate of pressure in space tends to be higher in the upwind side when the flow is non-axisymmetric. The transient pressure variations during the cavity formation procedure were also present. The method of measurement in this paper can be referenced by engineers. The result helps to study the flow pattern of cavity closure region, and it can also be used to analyze the formation of supercavitating vehicle hydrodynamics.

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON THE SHAPE CHARACTERS OF NATURAL AND VENTILATED SUPERCAVITATION

A series of projectile and water-tunnel experiments were conducted to investigate the shape characters of natural and ventilated supercavitation. It was found that the shape and dimensions of both the natural supercavitation and the ventilated supercavitation are similar through the comparison of them when the cavitation number is small and equal, and the contour of both the natural supercavitation and the ventilated supercavitation can be calculated effectively with the Savchenko formula. The gravity effect can induce the asymmetry of ventilated supercavitation, and the asymmetry is more apparent as the Froude number is smaller. The empirical formula for calculating the axial deformation of ventilated supercavitation was corrected and expanded based on experiment data. The evolution rules of both the natural supercavitation and the ventilated supercavitation were described, and the vortex frequency of natural cavitation was obtained. In addition, the hysteretic aspect was observed between the development and the fall process of ventilated cavitation.