Numerical simulation of unsteady cavitating flow around 2-D MHKF-180 and NACA4418 hydrofoils

Abstract

The low pressure regions on hydrofoils causes cavitation which results in a change of fluid dynamics characteristics. To understand the effect of cavitation on hydrofoil performance, a numerical study has been performed in this work using Zwart–Gerber–Belamri cavitation model and Realizable κ- ϵ turbulence model. Computations were performed for two-dimensional unsymmetrical MHKF-180 and NACA4418 hydrofoils. The performance of the hydrofoils at different angles of attack and cavitation numbers was studied based on the lift coefficient, drag coefficient, pressure coefficient and cavity length. The results of MHKF-180 were compared with that of NACA4418. From the comparison, it was found that under cavitating conditions the lift coefficient of MHKF-180 at different angles of attack is higher than NACA4418. Also, the cavity length on MHKF-180 is found to be smaller than that of NACA4418. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.