Numerical Analysis of the Effects of Periodic Gust Flow on the Wake Structure of Ventilated Supercavities

A computational model is established to investigate the effects of a periodic gust flow on the wake structure of ventilated supercavities. The effectiveness of the computational model is validated by comparing with available experimental data. Benefited from this numerical model, the vertical velocity characteristics in the entire flow field can be easily monitored and analyzed under the action of a gust generator; further, the unsteady evolution of the flow parameters of the closed region of the supercavity can be captured in any location. To avoid the adverse effects of mounting struts in the experiments and to obtain more realistic results, the wake structure of a ventilated supercavity without mounting struts is investigated. Unsteady changes in the wake morphology and vorticity distribution pattern of the ventilated supercavity are determined. The results demonstrate that the periodic swing of the gust generator can generate a gust flow and, therefore, generate a periodic variation of the ventilated cavitation number σ. At the peak σ, a re-entrant jet closure appears in the wake of the ventilated supercavity. At the valley σ, a twin-vortex closure appears in the wake of the ventilated supercavity. For the forward facing model, the twin vortex appears as a pair of centrally rolled-up vortices, due to the closure of vortex is affected by the structure. For the backward facing model, however, the twin vortex appears alternately as a pair of centrally rolled-up vortices and a pair of centrally rolled-down vortices, against the periodic gust flow.

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

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.

Experimental Study on Morphological Characteristics of Ventilated Supercavity of Double Disc Cavitator Projectile

Based on the principle of independence of cavity sections expansion, a double disc cavitator for underwater projectiles is proposed in this paper.The high-speed water tunnel experiment is carried out to study the generation and morphological characteristics of the ventilated supercavity which generated by this series of double disc cavitator.The experiment observed the ventilated supercavity morphology under the different cone angles by changing the ventilation flow coefficient.The experimental results show that there are two kinds of cavitation states:the front disc preferential cavitation and the rear disc preferential cavitation. The transition between these two states occur at a cone angle about 55°.The value of the critical ventilation flow coefficient when generating stable ventilation supercavity has a positive correlation with the cone angle.The front disc and the rear disc of the cavitator have mutual inhibitory effect on the production of ventilated supercavities.And the morphological characteristics of ventilated supercavity do not increase with the increasing of ventilation flow coefficient, but there is an upper limit value of ventilation flow coefficient.

On the internal flow of a ventilated supercavity

This study presents an experimental investigation on the internal flow of a ventilated supercavity using fog flow visualization and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. The ventilated supercavity is generated on a backward-facing cavitator and studied in the high-speed water tunnel at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. Fog particles are introduced into the supercavity through the ventilation line, and then illuminated by a laser sheet for flow visualizations and PIV measurements. The experiments are performed on the supercavities with two closure types, i.e. the re-entrant jet (RJ) and the twin vortex (TV), under the same water tunnel flow condition but different ventilation rates. The flow visualization revealed three distinct regions within the supercavity, including the ventilation influence region near the cavitator, the extended internal boundary layer along the liquid–gas interface and the reverse flow region occupying a large centre portion of the supercavity. The streamwise and vertical extent of the ventilation influence region, the streamwise growth of the internal boundary layer and the reverse flow within the supercavity are then quantified through PIV flow measurements. Compared to the RJ case, the results indicate that the TV supercavity yields a longer vertical extent of the ventilation influence region, a thinner internal boundary layer and a stronger reverse flow. The internal flow results suggest that at the upstream of the location of the maximum cavity diameter, the gas enters the forward flow (including the internal boundary layer and the forward moving portion of the ventilation influence region) from the reverse flow, while at the downstream of that location, the gas is stripped from the internal boundary layer and enters the reverse flow due to the increasing adverse pressure gradient in the streamwise direction. The above results are combined with visualization results of the supercavity geometry and closure patterns to further explain the influence of gas leakage mechanisms on cavity growth and closure transition. Specifically, visualization of the cavity geometry change during the RJ to TV supercavity transition indicates external flow separation associated with a critical incline angle of the bottom liquid–gas interface at the closure contributes to the onset of RJ closure. The closure visualization shows the coexistence of the toroidal vortex and twin-vortex tubes for the RJ supercavity leads to two gas leakage mechanisms: one associated with the shedding of toroidal vortices ($Q_{RJ}$) and the other due to the gas entrained by the internal boundary layer and leaking from the twin-vortex tubes ($Q_{TV}$). For the RJ supercavity, with increasing ventilation input, due to the reduction of $Q_{RJ}$, the supercavity needs to elongate to increase the gas entrained by the internal boundary layer (i.e. $Q_{TV}$) to balance the ventilation increase. The elongation of the supercavity leads to reduced flow separation, and eventually a transition to the TV supercavity with ventilation above a critical value. For the TV supercavity, $Q_{RJ}$ is absent. An increase of ventilation input can be balanced by the increase of $Q_{TV}$ associated with the widening of the twin-vortex tubes, and therefore, no appreciable elongation of cavity length is observed.