Numerical study of the super-cavitating flow of a wedge-shaped hydrofoil and the three-dimensional effects

The hydrodynamic force and the supercavitating flow of wedge-shaped hydrofoils are studied through numerical simulation. The detached eddy simulation (DES) method is adopted for turbulence modeling. The volume of fluid (VOF) is used to simulate the two-phase flow, and the Schnerr–Sauer cavitation model is applied for the mass transfer of liquid and vapor phases. The supercavitation flow of the hydrofoil with different cavitation numbers is simulated. The cavitation flow is different along the spanwise. The typical cavity at the middle of the span is unsteady, the cavitation and vortex interact, and reentrant jet flow occurs. The wake flow is complicate, the horseshoe vortex sheds continuously from the middle of the supercavity, and longitudinal vortices are observed on the two sides of the horseshoe vortex. The three-dimensional effects are analyzed with different aspect ratios. When the cavitation number σ≤0.3, the hydrofoil is fully cavitating, the hydrodynamic forces of three-dimensional foil are consistent with those of two-dimensional foil. When σ>0.4, the lift of three-dimensional foil drops as the supercavitation transits to partial cavitation, while the lift of two-dimensional foil increases with σ, and the foil remains fully cavitating.