Fifth International Symposium on Marine Propulsors
Abstract
In this paper, we examine the influence of wavy leading
edges (WLE) of a lifting surface on the mechanism of
cavitation formation and noise generation. The results of
two NACA 634-021 hydrofoils with different wavy leading
edges are compared with a NACA 634-021 hydrofoil with
a straight profile under different operational conditions.
This problem is studied numerically using an unsteady
RANS solver with a multiphase mixture flow model. The
results are contrasted against a hydrofoil with a straight
leading edge. The CFD method applied for solving the
incompressible hydrodynamic code is combined with the
Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model and with the FfowcsWilliams Hawking (FW-H) integral formulation that can
solve the hydro-acoustics problem. Furthermore, the
spherical wave equation is applied in order to capture the
monopole contribution of the cavitation volume
fluctuations. The leading wavy edge leads to the generation
of streamwise vorticity which causes the attached wake to
become unstable leading to smaller cavitation formations
resulting to reduced pressure noise
