Cavitation dynamics and vortex shedding in the wake of a bluff body

Abstract

Cavitating flow in the wake of a wedge-shaped bluff body is examined to understand the role of the presence of high void-fraction regions in the near-wake region on the process of vortex formation and shedding. Previous studies have noted that developed cavitation forming in the wake of bluff bodies typically leads to an increase in the vortex shedding rate, peaking at a particular cavitation number. Further reduction in cavitation number leads to a return to lower shedding rates as the cavity grows into a super-cavity. The underlying flow processes that lead to this phenomenon are explored using traditional flow visualisation combined with time-resolved void-fraction flow fields based on X-ray densitometry. These measurements allow us to relate the compressibility of the near-wake bubbly flow to the underlying flow processes. Specifically, we use proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) of the void-fraction fields to show that the increased rate of vortex shedding is associated with a pulsating mode of the void-fraction flow field, compared with a sinusoidal variation corresponding to the lower void-fraction shedding processes similar to that of the non-cavitating wake. The pulsating mode becomes more pronounced when the wake void fraction increases with decreasing cavitation number, with the maximum shedding occurring near the point that the wake flow becomes locally supersonic. The important influence of flow compressibility on the wake dynamics is confirmed through the examination of the effect of non-condensable gas injection. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press.