Experimental studies of supercavitating flow about simple two-dimensional bodies in a jet

Abstract

A two-dimensional free-jet water tunnel developed at the St Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory of the University of Minnesota is described briefly. Results of experimental measurements on a two-dimensional cup, symmetrical wedges, inclined flat plates, and a circular cylinder in the tunnel are given.Measured force coefficients at zero cavitation number are in good agreement with theory. Shapes of the cavities were computed for one of the wedges and for one of the plates at zero cavitation number; the observed shapes are also in good agreement with the theory.For non-zero cavitation numbers, theoretical results for force coefficients were available for comparison in only two cases. For one of these, the cup, agreement between theory and experiment was good up to a cavitation number of about 0.5. For the other, a symmetrical wedge, experimental results were compared with a linear theory with good agreement for cavitation numbers between about 0.1 and 0.3. In the case of the wedge, measured cavity lengths were somewhat shorter than predicted by the linear theory. All other comparisons with theory at non-zero cavitation number had to be made with the theory as developed for infinite fluid. The experimental force coefficients were less than predicted by infinite-fluid theory, but tended to approach the theoretical values as the cavitation number increased. A similar tendency marked the comparison between the experimental data and data taken by others in closed tunnels.