New proposals for coupling cavitation models with laminar/turbulent transition models: application to a cavitation sheet over a NACA 16 012

Abstract

Since 1970s, several experimental works revealed that the cavitation sheet inception does not occur at the minimum pressure location but further downstream at the location of a laminar/turbulent transition. Most of the cavitation models use the saturation vapour pressure as a threshold to initiate the production of vapour and therefore, are not able to capture such flows. In this paper, three modifications of the Schnerr and Sauer cavitation model are proposed and coupled with an algebraic laminar/turbulent transition model. Application to a NACA 16 012 profile shows the ability of the modifications to move the cavitation inception at the right location compared with the experiment. One of them, based on the multiplication of the evaporation term by the square of the turbulent intensity seems promising.