The aim of this paper is to investigate the ventilated cavitating flow behavior, through experimental and numerical method. The experiments are performed for a test-model placed in a water tunnel and a high-speed camera is used to image the formation and collapse of the supercavity. For the numerical simulations, Ansys CFX commercial software is employed to solve the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations and additional transport equation for the liquid volume fraction in the unsteady condition. Both the experimental observation and numerical prediction show a hysteresis behavior for ventilated supercavity in which the value of air entrainment coefficient required to maintain the supercavity in the formation process is less than the amount required to form it. The good agreement observed between the numerical prediction and experimental data, revealed the accuracy and capability of the numerical scheme. Also, the numerical simulation shows thatthe variations in the supercavity length, in addition to the air entrainment, are a function of air leakage regime from the closure region of supercavity.

Keywords