HydroCav

Projects

Cavitation in hydraulic is an important phenomenon to be considered for performance predictions. Correct analysis of the cavitation onset and development and its effect on the flow field while diminishing the pressure level need to be investigated. Particular attention is given to the coupling between cavitation and turbulence models as well as on the underlying numerical procedure. The performance of the proposed models will be initially assessed on simple cases in steady case. In a second step results for different applications will be presented with pitching foils. The final purpose of the project will be to design a passive controller on the hydrofoils able to decrease and control the size of the cavitating bubble around the hydrofoil and the lift oscillatione related to the shear cavitation. For the purpose, appendages, and vortex generator will be considered. The size, the height and the location will be considered to optimize the compromise between cavitation and lift reduction. The results will be compared with the experimental date on steady and pitchig hydrofoils.