Unsteady Structure Measurement of Cloud Cavitation on a Foil Section Using Conditional Sampling Technique

Abstract

The structure of flow around unsteady cloud cavitation on a stationary two-dimensional hydrofoil was investigated experimentally using a conditional sampling technique. The unsteady flow velocity around the cloud cavitation was measured by a Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) and matched with the unsteady cavitation appearance photographed by a high-speed camera. This matching procedure was performed using data from pressure fluctuation measurements on the foil surface. The velocities were divided into two components using a digital filter, i.e., large-scale (low-frequency) and small-scale (high frequency) ones. The large-scale component corresponds with the large-scale unsteady cloud cavitation motion. In this manner, the unsteady structure of the cloud cavitation was successfully measured. The experimental result showed that the cloud cavitation observed at the present experiment had a vorticity extremum at its center and a cluster containing many small cavitation bubbles. The convection velocity of the cavitation cloud was much lower than the uniform velocity. The small-scale velocity fluctuation was not distributed uniformly in the cavitation cloud, but was concentrated near its boundary.