Progress in numerical simulation of cavitating water jets

This paper reviews recent progress made toward modeling of cavitation and numerical simulation of cavitating water jets. Properties of existing cavitation models are discussed and a compressible mixture flow method for the numerical simulation of highspeed water jets accompanied by intensive cavitation is introduced. Two-phase fluids media of cavitating flow are treated as a homogeneous bubbly mixture and the mean flow is computed by solving Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for compressible fluid. The intensity of cavitation is evaluated by the gas volume fraction, which is governed by the compressibility of bubble-liquid mixture corresponding to the status of mean flow field. Numerical results of cavitating water jet issuing from an orifice nozzle are presented and its applicability to intensively cavitating jets is demonstrated. However, the effect of impact pressure caused by collapsing of bubbles is neglected, and effectively coupling of the present compressible mixture flow method with the dynamics of bubbles remains to be a challenge.     

NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF 2D PERIODIC UNSTEADY CAVITATING FLOWS

1. INTRODUCTION Cavitation is a natural phenomenon especially existing in liquids. A cavitating flow generally involves a large number of vapor structures such as bubbles or vortices which are convecting downstream. When they reach high pressure zones, th…     

绕扭曲翼型三维非定常空泡脱落结构的数值分析

该文以一种三维扭曲翼型为研究对象,采用均衡流空化模型和基于滤波器的湍流修改模式模拟了绕翼型非定常空化流动。计算结果显示,在一定条件下绕翼型的空泡流动存在两种脱落结构,即主体脱落和二次脱落。进一步的流场分析表明回射流和侧面射流是这两种空泡脱落结构产生的主要原因。计算结果与试验的比较说明,该文采用的数值模拟方法可成功模拟实验观测的空泡脱落现象。     

Shedding frequency of sheet cavitation around axisymmetric body at small angles of attack

Cavity shedding of cavitating flows around an axisymmetric body belongs to the unsteady cavitating flows in the condition of steady incoming current.The periodic characteristics of unsteady cavitating flows around an axisymmetric body at small angles of attack are investigated experimentally and numerically.The evolution and shedding process of the three-dimensional sheet cavitation are computed numerically by the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the RNG k-?model.The modification approach for eddy viscosity coefficient in the transition area of the two-phase flow is adopted to reproduce the shedding process of cavitating flows.The computed frequency of the cavity shedding coincides with the experimental data for the cases of unsteady cavitating flows around axisymmetric bodies with four headforms.Given the cavitation number,the shedding process of the cavitating flow depends heavily on the headform of the axisymmetric body.If the angle of attack of the axisymmetric body is greater than a critical value,the violent shedding of the sheet cavitation seems to be depressed.     

Experimental investigation and numerical analysis of unsteady attached sheet- cavitating flows in a centrifugal pump

This paper studies the attached sheet cavitation in centrifugal pumps. A pump casted from Perspex is used as the test subject. The cavitation bubbles were observed in the entrance of the impeller and the drops of the head coefficients were measured under different operating conditions. A Filter-Based Model (FBM), derived from the RNG k – ? model, and a modified Zwart model are adopted in the numerical predictions of the unsteady cavitating flows in the pump. The simulations are carried out and the results are compared with experimental results for 3 different flow coefficients, from 0.077 to 0.114. Under four operating conditions, qualitative comparisons are made between experimental and numerical cavitation patterns, as visualized by a high-speed camera and described as isosurfaces of the vapour volume fraction α_v = 0.1. It is shown that the simulation can truly represent the development of the attached sheet cavitation in the impeller. At the same time, the curves for the drops of the head coefficients obtained from experiments and calculations are also quantitatively compared, which shows that the decline of the head coefficients at every flow coefficient is correctly captured, and the prediction accuracy is high. In addition, the detailed analysis is made on the vapour volume fraction contours on the plane of span is 0.5 and the loading distributions around the blade section at the midspan. It is shown that the FBM model and the modified Zwart model are effective for the numerical simulation of the cavitating flow in centrifugal pumps. The analysis results can also be used as the basis for the further research of the attached sheet cavitation and the improvement of centrifugal pumps.     

Application of modified κ-ω model to predicting cavitating flow in centrifugal pump

Considering the compressibility of the cavity in the cavitating flow, this paper presents a modified κ-ω model for predicting the cavitating flow in a centrifugal pump, in which the modified κ-ω model and Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model were combined with ANSYS CFX. To evaluate the modified and standard κ-ω models, numerical simulations were performed with these two models, respectively, and the calculation results were compared with the experimental data. Numerical simulations were executed with three different values of the flow coefficient, and the simulation results of the modified κ-ω model showed agreement with most of the experimental data. The cavitating flow in the centrifugal pump obtained by the modified κ-ω model at the design flow coefficient of 0.102, was analyzed. When the cavitation number decreases, the cavity initially generates on the suction side of the blade near the leading edge and then expands to the outlet of the impeller, and the decrease of the total pressure coefficient mainly occurs upstream of the impeller passage, while the downstream remains almost unaffected by the development of cavitation.     

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE TIP CLEARANCE FLOWS ON THE UNSTEADY CAVITATING FLOWS IN A THREE- D IMENSIONAL INDUCER

To clarify the influences of the tip clearance flows on the unsteady cavitating flow,the three-dimensional unsteady cavitating flows through both the two-dimensional cascades and the three-dimensional inducer with and without tip clearance are performed numerically.The governing equations for the compressible fluid flow with the DES turbulence model are employed with the assumption of the isentropic process of liquid phase.The evolution of cavities is represented as the source/sink of vapor phase.The basic equations in the curve linear coordinate are solved by the finite difference method.As the results of the three-dimensional cavitating flows through the two-dimensional cascades,the tip clearance flows from the pressure side to the suction side of the blade produces the tip vortex cavitation,which affects the sheet cavitation on the leading edge of the next blade and enhances the blockage effect near the casing than the flows without tip clearance.On the other hand,in the case of the three-dimensional inducer,the large backflow cavitation is observed around the inlet of the inducer,where the cavities are developed on the casing by the tip clearance flows.The large pressure gradient between the non-cavitating pressure side and the cavitating suction side enhances the tip clearance flows.The calculation considering the tip clearance reproduces the developed cavitation region similar to that of experimental visualizations.Additionally,the backflow cavitation rotates with the speed slower than the rotation speed of the inducer.Then,the rotation of backflow cavitation causes the periodic fluctuation of the outlet pressure greater than that of the inlet pressure.     

Verification and validation of URANS simulations of the turbulent cavitating flow around the hydrofoil

In this paper, we investigate the verification and validation(VV) procedures for the URANS simulations of the turbulent cavitating flow around a Clark-Y hydrofoil. The main focus is on the feasibility of various Richardson extrapolation-based uncertainty estimators in the cavitating flow simulation. The unsteady cavitating flow is simulated by a density corrected model(DCM) coupled with the Zwart cavitation model. The estimated uncertainty is used to evaluate the applicability of various uncertainty estimation methods for the cavitating flow simulation. It is shown that the preferred uncertainty estimators include the modified Factor of Safety(FS1), the Factor of Safety(FS) and the Grid Convergence Index(GCI). The distribution of the area without achieving the validation at the U v level shows a strong relationship with the cavitation. Further analysis indicates that the predicted velocity distributions, the transient cavitation patterns and the effects of the vortex stretching are highly influenced by the mesh resolution.     

Numerical analysis of cavitation within slanted axial-flow pump

In this paper, the cavitating flow within a slanted axial-flow pump is numerically researched. The hydraulic and cavitation performance of the slanted axial-flow pump under different operation conditio...     

Some notes on numerical simulation and error analyses of the attached turbulent cavitating flow by LES

In this letter, the attached turbulent cavitating flow around the Clark-Y hydrofoil is investigated by the numerical simulation with special emphasis on error analysis of large eddy simulation(LES) for the unsteady cavitation simulation. The numerical results indicate that the present simulation can capture the periodic cavity shedding behavior and show a fairly good agreement with the available experimental data. Further analysis demonstrates that the cavitation has a great influence on LES numerical error and modeling error. The modeling error and numerical error are almost on the same order of magnitude, while the modeling error often shows a little bit larger magnitude than numerical error. The numerical error and modeling error sometimes can partially offset each other if they have the opposite sign. Besides, our results show that cavitation can extend the magnitudes and oscillation levels of numerical error and modeling error.     

Numerical analysis of cavitation cloud shedding in a submerged water jet

Focused on the unsteady behavior of high-speed water jets with intensive cavitation a numerical analysis is performed by applying a practical compressible mixture flow bubble cavitation model with a simplified estimation of bubble radius. The mean flow of two-phase mixture is calculated by unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes(URANS) for compressible flow and the intensity of cavitation in a local field is evaluated by the volume fraction of gas bubbles whose radius is estimated with a simplified RayleighPlesset equation according to pressure variation of the mean flow field. High-speed submerged water jet issuing from a sheathed sharp-edge orifice nozzle is treated. The periodically shedding of cavitation clouds is captured in a certain reliability compared to experiment data of visualization observation and the capability to capture the unsteadily shedding of cavitation clouds is demonstrated. The results demonstrate that cavitation takes place near the entrance of nozzle throat and cavitation cloud expands consequentially while flowing downstream. Developed bubble clouds break up near the nozzle exit and shed downstream periodically along the shear layer. Under the effect of cavitation bubbles the decay of core velocity is delayed compared to the case of no-cavitation jet.     

Numerical investigation of the effect of rotation on cavitating flows over axisymmetric cavitators

The rotating axisymmetric cavitator is widely applied in underwater vehicles, and its rotational motion affects the cavitating flow over the cavitator. This study focuses on the effect of rotation on the flow structure in the cavity bubble. Unsteady 2-D/3-D numerical simulations of cavitating flows over axisymmetric cavitators are performed using the volume of fraction(VOF) method and the Sauer-Schnerr cavitation model. Firstly, the 2-D simulation of cavitating flow over a circular disk or a cone cavitator is carried out at various cavitation numbers(0.15, 0.175, 0.2, 0.225 and 0.25). The simulated cavity lengths and drag coefficients are compared with the experimental data, the theoretical estimations and the published numerical results. Then the 3-D simulations of cavitating flows over the same axisymmetric cavitators with different rotating speeds are performed using the sliding mesh model(SMM). The effect of rotation on the cavity shape and the internal flow structure is analyzed.     

收缩—扩散型喷嘴长度影响空化效果的数值分析

喷嘴长度是影响收缩—扩散型喷嘴空化效果的重要参数。运用连续方程、动量方程和Rayleigh-Plesset方程,对流经收缩—扩散型喷嘴的泡液流进行稳态求解。计算结果表明泡液流中很小的入口空隙率对流动特性有强烈影响,并随着无量纲喷嘴长度的变化对流动特性的影响有着显著的相似性。随着喷嘴长度的增长,喷嘴入口空隙率临界值以指数规律下降,气泡半径呈线性增长。     

URANS COMPUTATION OF CAVITATING FLOWS AROUND SKEWED PROPELLERS

Cavitating flows around skewed propellers are investigated numerically by means of the unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) Equation method. The standard k-ε turbulence and the modified Z-G-B cavitation models are employed. A measured nominal wake is used for the inlet velocity boundary condition. Predicted cavitating evolution processes and tip cavity patterns are compared with experimental observations. In addition, the influence of the skew angles on the cavitation and unsteadiness performances of propellers operating in a non-uniform wake is also studied. Results show that the modified Z-G-B cavitation model performs better to simulate the cavitating flow cases studied in this paper. Comparisons demonstrate that the skewed propeller with a skew angle of 20 o is the best choice for a given stern wake with a assigned thrust and the minimum force fluctuations.     

Three-dimensional large eddy simulation and vorticity analysis of unsteady cavi- taring flow around a twisted hydrofoil

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) was coupled with a mass transfer cavitation model to predict unsteady 3-D turbulent cavitating flows around a twisted hydrofoil. The wall-adapting local eddy-viscosity (WALE) model was used to give the Sub-Grid Scale (SGS) stress term. The predicted 3-D cavitation evolutions, including the cavity growth, break-off and collapse downstream, and the shedding cycle as well as its frequency agree fairly well with experimental results. The mechanism for the interactions between the cavitation and the vortices was discussed based on the analysis of the vorticity transport equation related to the vortex stretching, volumetric expansion/contraction and baroclinic torque terms along the hydrofoil mid-plane. The vortical flow analysis demonstrates that cavitation promotes the vortex production and the flow unsteadiness. In non-cavitation conditions, the streamline smoothly passes along the upper wall of the hydrofoil with no boundary layer separation and the boundary layer is thin and attached to the foil except at the trailing edge. With decreasing cavitation number, the present case has σ= 1.07, and the attached sheet cavitation becomes highly unsteady, with periodic growth and break-off to form the cavitation cloud. The expansion due to cavitation induces boundary layer separation and significantly increases the vorticity magnitude at the cavity interface. A detailed analysis using the vorticity transport equation shows that the cavitation accelerates the vortex stretching and dilatation and increases the baroclinic torque as the major source of vorticity generation. Examination of the flow field shows that the vortex dilatation and baroclinic torque terms increase in the cavitating case to the same magnitude as the vortex stretching term, while for the non-cavitating case these two terms are zero.     

NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF CAVITATING FLOWS

BRIEFINTRODUCTIONOFTHEPAPER :　Thisthesismainlyresearchesonthehydrodynamiccharacteristicsandmechanismfor 3Dcavitatingflowsaroundaxisymmetricbodies ,aswellasthe2Dcavitatingflowsaroundhydrofoils .Anewcavi tatingflowmodel,whichinvolvesviscousandmul ti phaseeffects,isestablishedintwo phaseflowcategory .Accordingtothelocalizedvariationofdensitywithinpredominantlyincompressiblewatermediumandthecharacteristicsofsoundspeedinwater vapormixture ,arelationbetweendensityandpressureisassumed ,in…     

An integral calculation approach for numerical simulation of cavitating flow around a marine propeller behind the ship hull

In this paper, the unsteady cavitating turbulent flow around a marine propeller is simulated based on the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes(URANS) with emphasis on the hull-propeller interaction by an integral calculation approach, which means the propeller and hull are treated as a whole when the cavitating flow is calculated. The whole calculational domain is split to an inner rotating domain containing a propeller and an outer domain containing a hull. And the two split sections are connected together in ANSYS CFX by using the GGI interfaces and the transient rotor stator frame change/mixing model. The alternate rotation model is employed for the advection term in the momentum equations in order to reduce the numerical error. Comparison of predictions with measurements shows that the propeller thrust coefficient can be predicted satisfactorily. The unsteady cavitating flow around the propeller behind the ship hull wake shows quasi-periodic features including cavity inception, growth and shrinking. These features are effectively reproduced in the simulations which compare well to available experimental data. In addition, significant pressure fluctuations on the ship hull surface induced by the unsteady propeller cavitation are compared with experimental data at monitoring points on the hull surface. The predicted amplitudes of the first components corresponding to the first blade passing frequencies match well with the experimental data. The maximum error between the predictions and the experimental data for the pressure pulsations is around 8%, which is acceptable in most engineering applications.     

空泡两相流场PIV测试技术研究

基于图像分析和TR-PIV建立了一套空泡周围非定常两相流场的PIV测试技术,并对分析方法进行详细的描述与试验验证.利用本文针对空泡现象选择的图像处理方法可以同时获取空泡的轮廓边界和空泡周围流场信息.三维水翼空泡流场试验表明,该方法适用于空泡现象的研究和分析,可获取高时间和空间分辨率的量化空泡发展过程以及空泡生长、脱落和溃灭过程中空泡壁面附近和周围流场的量化信息.     

On the numerical simulations of vortical cavitating flows around various hydrofoils

This paper reviews the numerical models of various cavitating flows around hydrofoils. Numerical models relating to cavitation flows, including mass transfer models and turbulence models, are summarized at first. Then numerical results and analysis of flow characteristics for the cavitating flows around twisted hydrofoils, truncated hydrofoil and tip leakage are discussed respectively. For mean flow fields, Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS) simulation associated with a kind of nonlinear turbulence model is found to be an economic and robust numerical approach for different kinds of cavitating flows including cloud cavitation, tip cavitation and tip leakage cavitation. To predict the fluctuations of pressure and velocity, large eddy simulation(LES) and detached eddy simulation(DES) are two effective approaches. Finally, a few open questions are proposed for future research.     

Large eddy simulation of turbulent attached cavitating flow with special emphasis on large scale structures of the hydrofoil wake and turbulence-cavitation interactions

In this paper, the turbulent attached cavitating flow around a Clark-Y hydrofoil is investigated by the large eddy simulation(LES) method coupled with a homogeneous cavitation model. The predicted lift coefficient and the cavity volume show a distinctly quasi-periodic process with cavitation shedding and the results agree fairly well with the available experimental data. The present simulation accurately captures the main features of the unsteady cavitation transient behavior including the attached cavity growth, the sheet/cloud cavitation transition and the cloud cavitation collapse. The vortex shedding structure from a hydrofoil cavitating wake is identified by the Q- criterion, which implies that the large scale structures might slide and roll down along the suction side of the hydrofoil while being further developed at the downstream. Further analysis demonstrates that the turbulence level of the flow is clearly related to the cavitation and the turbulence velocity fluctuation is much influenced by the cavity shedding.