A numerical and experimental study on the drag of a cavitating underwater vehicle in cavitation tunnel

ABSTRACTFor Super-Cavitating Underwater Vehicles (SCUV), the numerical analyses and experiments in a large cavitation tunnel are carried out at relatively large Reynolds numbers. The numerical results agree well with experiments and the drag coefficient of SCUV is rarely changed by the Reynolds number. As the cavitation number is decreased, the cavity occurs and grows, the cavitator drag decreases and the body drag is affected by the degree of covering the body with the cavity. The tunnel effects, i.e. the blockage and the friction pressure drop of the tunnel, on the drag and the cavitation of SCUV are examined from the numerical results in between the tunnel and unbounded flows. In the tunnel, a minimum cavitation number exists and the drag of SCUV appears larger than that in unbounded flow. When the super-cavity covers the entire body, the friction drag almost disappears and the total drag of SCUV can be regarded as the pressure drag of cavitato