Boundary Vorticity Analysis and Shedding Dynamics of Transient Cavitation Flow Around a Twisted Hydrofoil

Abstract The objective of this paper is to investigate the dynamic characteristics of transient cavitating flow over a twisted NACA0009 hydrofoil. The large eddy simulation (LES) approach is selected for the computation of fluid flow and the Zwart model is used for the mass transfer due to cavitation. Moreover, the skin-friction coefficient and boundary-vorticity flux (BVF) are used to study the flow separation. Numerical results show that the attached shear layer separates from the boundary layer and then squeezes to form the separation line under the obstruction of the reentrant jet. The analysis based on the terms of vorticity transport equation demonstrates that vortex stretching and vortex dilatation terms dominate the evolution of the multiscale vortex. Moreover, the secondary shedding induced by the side-entrant jet enhances the instability of partial cavities and the underlying mechanism is comprehensively revealed. Furthermore, the feature of the pressure fluctuation indicates that high pressure generated by the cavity collapse at the tail simultaneously propagates to the leading edge and downstream of the hydrofoil. This enhances the intensity of the reentrant jet and side-entrant jet, promoting occurrences of flow separation near the suction surface and cavity shedding to a certain extent.