Influence of cavitation on the hydroelastic stability of hydrofoils

This work numerically examines the effect of turbulent and cavitating flow on the hydroelastic response and stability of a hydrofoil. A cantilevered, rectangular, chordwise rigid hydrofoil is modeled as a 2-degrees-of-freedom structure for its spanwise bending and torsional flexibilities. The fluid flow is modeled with the incompressible, Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations using an eddy-viscosity turbulence closure model that is corrected for the presence of cavitation, and with a transport equation based cavitation model. The results show that, in general, massive cavitation tends to: (i) reduce the mean lift, (ii) increase the mean drag, (iii) lower the mean deformations, and (iv) delay static divergence, while unsteady sheet/cloud cavitation promotes flow induced vibrations. Such vibrations and load fluctuations could be as large as (and even greater than) the mean values for cases with unsteady cavitation, so dynamic and viscous fluid-structure models are needed to simulate flexible hydrofoils in cavitating flows. In general, the flow induced vibrations, and hence the drag force, are higher with decreasing stiffness. For small leading edge partial cavitation, increasing foil flexibility increases the maximum cavity length and reduces the cavity shedding frequency; however, the influence of foil flexibility is limited for cases where the maximum cavity length is near or beyond the foil trailing edge, because of the relocation of the center of pressure at the elastic axis, near the mid-chord. The results show that the mean deformations are generally limited by stall, and by the quasi-steady linear theory predictions at the fully-wetted and supercavitating limits. Furthermore, frequency focusing can occur when the cavity shedding frequency is near the fundamental system resonance frequencies, and broadening of the frequency spectrum can occur due to excitation of the sub-harmonics and/or modulation induced by the fluctuating cavities, if the cavity shedding frequency is away from the fundamental system resonance frequencies.