Numerical Analysis of Water Suction Effect on Lift and Drag Coefficient of a Hydrofoil With Cavitation

Cavitation is the formation of the vapor bubbles within a liquid where the flow dynamics, cause the local static pressure to drop below the vapor pressure. This phenomenon can cause undesirable effects on the hydrofoils such as a decrease in the lift and an increase in the drag. In the present study, the unsteady cavitating flow over a 3-D hydrofoil is numerically simulated. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of the upper surface suction in the cavitation area on the lift and drag coefficients of a hydrofoil. An unsteady uniform flow of water over a 3-D NACA hydrofoil is numerically simulated. The full cavitation model along with the RNG k-ε turbulence model is implemented. A modification to the turbulent viscosity, which is necessary to simulate the cloud cavitation, is implemented. The simulation is implemented for various angles of attack and various suction velocities. Comparison between some experimental data and the numerical simulation obtained here is done in order to validate the numerical results. The results obtained here show that, as the mass flow of the water suction increases, the drag coefficient is decreased for large angles of attack, but for small angles of attack it does not change as much. As the mass flow of the water suction increases, the lift coefficient is decreased for small angles of attack and for larger angles of attack the lift coefficient is increased.