Effect of compressibility on supercavitating flow around slender conical body moving at subsonic and supersonic speed

Based on slender body theory (SBT), Tait׳s state equation and Riabouchinsky closure scheme, this paper has established a theoretical model and computational method including the effect of compressibility for supercavitating flow past a high speed slender conical body, derived the integer-differential equations (IDE) according to different characteristics of subsonic and supersonic flows, and presented the numerical discrete scheme and iteration method to solve the IDE. Supercavity shapes and the hydrodynamic coefficients are acquired for a slender conical body at different cone semi-angles, cavitation number and Mach number. The theoretical model and calculated results are verified by the comparison with the results of other literatures. Finally we have analyzed the influences of fluid compressibility on the supercavity shapes, pressure distribution over the cone surface and base drag coefficient. The above results show that the predicted accuracy of the supercavity shape, maximal radius, aspect ratio, drag coefficient is very good for small cone semi-angle till 15° both in incompressible and compressible flow.