Frequency characteristics of liquid hydrogen cavitating flow over a NACA0015 hydrofoil

Large eddy simulation on unsteady cavitating flow of liquid hydrogen over a three-dimensional NACA0015 hydrofoil with the attack angle (α) of 6° are carried out to investigate the dynamic features of cavity with the existence of thermal effects. The numerical model considers the compressibility of both liquid and vapor phase, and is validated by comparing the results with the available experimental data. Special emphasis is put on analyzing the frequency characteristics of cavitation cloud. Strouhal number (St) is plotted against σ/2α (σ is cavitation number), and the water cavitation data reported by Andrt et al. are also used as a reference. It is found that the St number for LH2 cavitation is much smaller than the water, in which the thermal effects are generally not considered, at the same σ/2α value when it is greater than about 2.0, while it returns to the same level as water when σ/2α decreases to below 2.0. The reason is primarily ascribed to the thermal effects, and the detailed explanations are given based on the recognitions that the shedding mechanism of cavitation clouds is predominated by the combined action of the vortex flow and thermal effects. While, when σ/2α decreases to a critical value, the relative effect of the thermal effects on the cavitation dynamics is greatly weakened compared with the mechanism due to the vortex flow, like those in isothermal cavitation flow in traditional fluids. The results provide a deeper understanding of the cryogenic fluid cavitation flow.