Numerical Investigation of Hydrofoil Cavitation Using OpenFOAM: Effect of Thickness and Camber

Cavitation is a critical phenomenon in hydrodynamic applications, significantly affecting the performance and durability of hydrofoils. This study presents a numerical investigation on cavitation over hydrofoils, focusing on the effects of thickness and camber, using the interPhaseChangeFoam solver of the OpenFOAM framework based on the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach. The numerical setup was validated using the NACA66(mod) hydrofoil. Simulations were conducted at a fixed angle of attack of 4 degrees under two cavitation numbers, 0.84 and 0.91. To evaluate thickness effects, symmetric hydrofoils NACA0012, NACA0016, and NACA0020 were analyzed. For camber effects, hydrofoils with identical thickness but varying camber, NACA0012, NACA2412, and NACA4412, were considered. The Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model was employed with a vapor pressure of 2420 Pa. The results reveal that cambered and thicker hydrofoils exhibit more extensive cavitation regions. Increase in cavitation number causes generally to increase in lift coefficient and the effect is more intense for cambered airfoils.