Physical and numerical investigation of cavitating flows around a pitching hydrofoil

The objective of this paper is to investigate cavitating flows around a pitching hydrofoil via combined physical and numerical studies. The aims are to (1) improve the understanding of the interplay between unsteady cavitating flow, hydrofoil motion, and hydrodynamic performance, (2) quantify the influence of pitching rate on subcavitating and cavitating responses, and (3) quantify the influence of cavitation on the hydrodynamic load coefficients and surrounding flow structures. Results are presented for a NACA66 hydrofoil undergoing controlled, slow $(\dot \alpha = 6^\circ /{\rm s})$(α̇=6∘/s) and fast $(\dot \alpha = 63^\circ /{\rm s})$(α̇=63∘/s) pitching motions from α = 0° to α = 15° and back to α = 0° for both subcavitating and cavitating conditions at a moderate Reynolds number of Re = 750 000. The experimental studies were conducted in a cavitation tunnel at the French Naval Academy, France. The numerical simulations are performed by solving the incompressible, multiphase Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations via the commercial code CFX using a transport equation-based cavitation model; a modified k-ω SST turbulence model is used to account for the effect of local compressibility on the turbulent eddy viscosity. The results showed that increases in the pitching rate suppressed laminar to turbulent transition, delayed stall, and significantly modified post-stall behavior. Cavitation inception at the leading edge modified the pressure distribution, which in turn significantly changed the interaction between leading edge and trailing edge vortices, and hence the magnitude as well as the frequency of the load fluctuations. For a fixed cavitation number, increases in pitching rate lead to increase in cavitation volume, which in turn changed the cavity shedding frequencies and significantly modified the hydrodynamic loads. Inversely, the leading edge cavitation observed for the low pitching velocity case tends to stabilize the stall because of the decrease of the pressure gradient due to the formation of the cavity. The results showed strong correlation between the cavity and vorticity structures, which suggest that the inception, growth, collapse and shedding of sheet/cloud cavities are important mechanisms for vorticity production and modification.