Experimental investigation of partial and cloud cavitation control on a hydrofoil using bio-inspired riblets

We experimentally investigated a passive cavitation control approach to control partial and cloud cavitation on a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 0015 hydrofoil. For this approach, we implemented two different kinds of mesoscale bio-inspired riblets, known as scalloped riblets and sawtooth riblets, on the suction side of the hydrofoil near its leading edge. We studied the dynamics of partial and cloud cavitation on the hydrofoil with and without two kinds of riblets using a high-speed camera. In addition, we performed hydro-acoustic measurements to analyze the effects of this passive control on the cavitation induced noise in the wake of the hydrofoils. We considered flows at Reynolds numbers 0.5 × 106 and 0.6 × 106 with the hydrofoils at angles of attack of 8° and 10°. Results revealed that the cloud cavitation shedding on the hydrofoil suction surface was mitigated significantly due to the reduction in the re-entrant jet momentum. Also, the influence of tip vortex cavitation was reduced on the modified hydrofoils. Furthermore, the large-scale cavitation induced noise for the unmodified hydrofoil was located mostly at lower frequency in the range of 30 Hz, which was similar to the cavity shedding frequency. The small-scale vortex-induced noise concentrated at relative higher frequency between 100 and 120 Hz. The noise reduction in this study was achieved by scalloped and sawtooth riblets at low frequency domain and for some cases at higher frequency range by manipulating of the cavitation oscillation mechanism and elimination of a large-scale cavitation structure. This study provided new insight into controlling the destructive effects of cavitation using bio-inspired riblets, which should be relevant for various engineering applications.