Transcritical Patterns of Cavitating Flow and Trends of Acoustic Level

Abstract

Hydroacoustics of the transcritical cavitating flows on a NACA16012 hydrofoil at a 2/5/8-degree angle of attack and axisymmetric bodies with hemispherical and 45-degree conical headforms were studied, and the process of cloud cavitation shedding was observed by means of high-speed cinegraphy. By expressing the cavitation noise with partial acoustic level, it is found that the development of cavitation noise varies correspondingly with cavitation patterns. The instability of cavitation is a result of cavity-flow interaction, and is mainly affected by the liquid flow rather than by the cavitation bubbles. A periodic flow structure with a large cavitation vortex is observed and found to be responsible for inducing the reentrant-jet and consequent cavitation shedding, and explains the mechanism of periodic cavitation shedding from a new viewpoint. New terms for the three stages, growing, hatching and breaking, are used to describe the process of cavity shedding.