Long Term Dynamics of Water-Entry Cavity

Many engineering applications involve the motion of objects crossing a fluid interface. The dynamics of this process are often complicated due to the interplay of surface tension, gravity, and inertia. Nevertheless, a simple analysis using potential flow theory works well to predict the interfacial profile of the air cavity formed during an impact. Most current theories however, cannot predict the behavior of the air cavity after pinch off occurs. We therefore investigated the long term dynamics of water entry in both experiment and theory. It was found that shortly after pinch off the cavity dynamics become governed primarily by thermodynamic gas relations. The internal pressure slowly rises due to the cavity volume decreasing while the ambient liquid pressure quickly increases as a result of the descent of the projectile. This effect is incorporated into our model to correctly predict the cavity geometry.