A Versatile Partial Sheet Cavitation Model

This paper presents a partial sheet cavitation model and its validation. The partial sheet cavitation model has been developed and implemented within an unsteady potential flow code. However, as proposed in the model, there exists a relationship between the sheet cavitation geometry and the pressure distribution in non-cavitating condition, so the model can be implemented in various flow solvers. The ob-jective of this study is to develop a fast numerical tool to ac-cess the hydrodynamic forces and performance of rudders and marine propellers with partial sheet cavitation effects in unsteady state flow conditions. The model has been first validated by comparing its results with experimental mea-surements on a 2D hydrofoil. A second stage of validation has been performed using some available measurements re-sults of cavity length over a 3D hydrofoil. Finally, a series of experiments have been setup and performed in the cav-itation tunnel of the BSHC to measure the hydrodynamic forces over a 3D cavitating hydrofoil. This last stage com-pletes the model validation in steady state flow condition. Finally, results obtained by simulations in unsteady flow condition will also be presented and discussed