Numerical Investigation of Cavitation Flow Around Hydrofoil and Its Flow Noise

Underwater cavitation is one of the most important issues because it causes not only vibration and erosion of submerged bodies but also significant flow noise problems. In this paper, flow noise due to cavitation flows around the NACA66 MOD hydrofoil is numerically investigated. The cavitation flow simulation is conducted using the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations based on finite difference methods. To capture the cavitation phenomena accurately and effectively, the homogeneous mixture model with the Merkle's cavitation model is applied. The predicted results are compared with available experimental data in terms of pressure coefficients and volume fraction, which confirms the validity of numerical results. Based on flow field analysis results, hydro-acoustic noise field due to the cavitation flow is predicted using the Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings equation derived from the Lighthill's acoustic analogy. The typical lift dipole propagation patterns are identified.