Cavitation noise and inception as influenced by boundary-layer development on a hydrofoil

This paper describes measurements of noise from two-phase flow over hydrofoils. The experiments were performed in a variable-pressure water tunnel which was acoustically calibrated so that sound power levels could be deduced from the sound measurements. It is partially reverberant in the frequency range of interest. Cavitation was generated on a hydrofoil in the presence of either a separated laminar boundary layer or a fully turbulent attached boundary layer. The turbulent boundary layer was formed downstream of a trip which was positioned near the leading edge. High-speed photographs show the patterns of cavitation which were obtained in each case. The noise is shown to depend on the type of cavitation produced; and for each type, the dependence on speed and cavitation index has been determined. Dimensionless spectral densities of the sound are shown for each type of flow.