Explanation of the Influence of Inflow Air Content on the Lift of Cavitating Hydrofoils

According to several known experiments, an increase of the incoming flow air content can increase the hydrofoil lift coefficient. The presented theoretical study shows that such increase is associated with the decrease of the fluid density at the cavity surface. This decrease is caused by entrainment of air bubbles to the cavity from the surrounding flow. The theoretical results based on such explanation are in a good agreement with the earlier published experimental data for NACA0015.