Large Eddy Simulation of Unsteady Cavitating Flow over a Disk

Cavitation is a phenomenon that frequently occurs in fluid-handling machinery and has both desirable and undesirable features. Undesirable effects are usually associated with surface erosion, excessive noise generation, and hydrodynamic losses. On the other hand, desirable features of cavitation can be used in applications such as micro-bubble generation and viscous drag reduction. Engineering interest in natural and ventilated cavities over submerged bodies has led researchers to study cavitation. Comparatively simple analytical methods have been used to model the developed cavitation for flows whose hydrodynamics are often dominated by irrotational and rotational inviscid effects. However, a range of more complex physical phenomena are often associated with such cavities, including viscous effects, unsteadiness, mass transfer, three-imensionality, and compressibility. In this paper, a finite volume method is used to simulate developed cavitation over a disk using the Kunz cavitation model and considering large eddy viscosity as a turbulence model. Comparison between experimental data and computed cavity length shows the ability of the combined cavitation and turbulence models to predict cavity characteristics