Effects of closure models on supercavitating bubble development

Abstract

Effects of different cavity closure models on the development sheet supercavitation of two-dimensional hydrofoils were examined in this report. The study was carried out under the assumption of potential flow for which a cavity closure model was needed. A potential-based boundary element method has been developed for this purpose. The models we employed included the constant velocity model and the short plate termination model. Several different airfoil shapes were tested. Their effects on the cavity shape, lift coefficient, cavity volume and computation efficiency were studied. Careful investigations show that closure models have insignificant influence on physical quantities, but do have strong effects on computational efficiency.