Experimental and numerical investigation of an unsteady supercavitating moving body

In the last decade much research works has been carried out in order to improve the operation and speed of the underwater vehicles. In this study important supercavitation features including formation, evolution and loss of supercavitation and partial cavitation for an underwater moving body are both experimentally and numerically investigated. To achieve this goal the natural supercavitation experiment was conducted through a moving body and the trajectory of the body and the shape of supercavity profile were recorded by a high speed camera. For the numerical simulation of the underwater moving body the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations are coupled to a six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) rigid body motion model. The numerical results are validated by comparing the predicted trajectory and velocity of the body with presented experimental data. A good agreement between the predicted and experimental values ensures the accuracy of the prepared numerical algorithm that used in the present study. The results reported in this paper illustrate that the above experimental method and numerical algorithm can be one of the most powerful and beneficial tools for the supercavitating underwater vehicles optimization and performance analysis.

► We study important supercavitation features both experimentally and numerically.
► We couple fluid flow equations to 6DOF algorithm for supercavitation modeling.
► We validate the numerical results by comparing with presented experimental data.
► Results show that the above methods are a beneficial tool for cavitation analysis.