TWO DIMENSIONAL SIMULATION OF UNSTEADY CAVITATING FLOW IN A CASCADE

We have developed a numerical scheme to reproduce the unsteady flows with cavitation by the finite-difference method. The evolution of cavitation is represented by the source/sink of vapor phase in the incompressible liquid flow. The pressure-velocity coupling is based on the fractional-step method for incompressible fluid flows, in which the compressibility is taken into account through the low Mach number assumption. We applied our method for the cavitating flows in a two-dimensional cascade, which approximates the portion near the tip of inducer in liquid-fuel engine. Particular attention was focused on the influence of turbulence model in this report. Using an eddy viscosity model, although it was not an optimized one for our purpose, the agreement with the experimental observation was improved.