Numerical investigation of three-dimensional partial cavitation in a Venturi geometry

Camille Gouin (1) , Carlos Junqueira-Junior (1) , Eric Goncalves da Silva (2, 3) , Jean-Christophe Robinet (1)

1 DynFluid - Laboratoire de Dynamique des Fluides
2 PPrime [Poitiers] - Institut Pprime [UPR 3346]
3 ISAE-ENSMA - École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d’Aérotechnique [Poitiers]

Sheet cavitation appears in many hydraulic applications and can lead to technical issues. Some fundamental outcomes such as the complex topology of 3-Dimensional cavitation pockets and their associated dynamics need to be carefully visited. In the paper, the dynamics of partial cavitation developing in a 3-D Venturi geometry and the interaction with sidewalls are numerically investigated. The simulations are performed using a one-fluid compressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver associated to a non-linear turbulence model and a void ratio transport-equation model. A detailed analysis of this cavitating flow is carried out using innovative tools such as Spectral Proper Orthogonal Decompositions. Particular attention is paid in the study of 3-D effects by comparing numerical results obtained with sidewalls and periodic conditions. A three-dimensional dynamics of the sheet cavitation, unrelated to the presence of sidewalls, is identified and discussed.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Camille Gouin, Carlos Junqueira-Junior, Eric Goncalves da Silva, Jean-Christophe Robinet. Numerical investigation of three-dimensional partial cavitation in a Venturi geometry. Physics of Fluids, 2021, 33 (6), ⟨10.1063/5.0052913⟩. ⟨hal-03263660⟩