Effect of rotating, non-axisymmetric cavitator on supercavity size

Abstract

This study was conducted using a rotating non-axisymmetric cavitator to artificially increase the size of the cavity. Computational analysis was performed to predict the size of the cavity with a cavitation number of 0.3. To analyze the effect of the shape of the cavitator, six cavitator shapes were used by combining the cavitator thickness, the angle of the blades, the angle between the side surface of the blade and the rotating direction. The results of the study showed that the length of the cavity increased as the rotation velocity increased during the rotation of the cavitator. The drag force increased as the rotation velocity increased, but the increase was small. As a result, the length of the cavity for the same drag increased significantly as the side surface of the cavitator was perpendicular to the direction of rotation and the thickness of the cavitator was thick. The length of the cavity against the same drag was larger than that of a conventional disk cavitator.