CHAPTER 2: THEORY OF SUPERCAVITATION

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Chapter II

THEORY OF SUPERCAVITATION
2.1 Introduction to Supercavitation

The pursuit of a higher speed on the underwater weapons as well as the increasing
attention on the lower energycost capability of civil vehicle at sea make people attach more and
more importance to the supercavitation investigation over the last decades. The idea of
supercavitation attracts the attention of creators of high velocity underwater vehicles as a
fundamental way to reduce hydrodynamic resistance, and first of all friction resistance. In the
case of high-speed underwater motion, cavity filled with gas or vapour is formed behind the bodycavitator and enwraps entirely the whole body, which is called supercavitation. A supercavitating
vehicle is a complex high-speed underwater body that is exposed to extreme operating conditions
due to its speed. In supercavitating flows, the liquid phase does not contact the moving body over
most of its length, thus making the skin drag almost negligible. Skin friction drag is a main factor
that limits the speed of underwater vehicles. Several new and projected supercavitating
underwater vehicles exploit supercavitation as a means to achieve extremely high submerged
speeds and low drag. Supercavitating technology can make the vehicles enveloped in the hull full
of gas, which reduces skin friction drag dramatically.
When bodies move in water with the high speed V > 50mps, the elongated cavities
arise which are filled with the saturated water vapour. In this case only a small part of the body
surface a cavitator contacts with water. As a result, the hydrodynamic drag dramatically reduces
owing to decreasing the wetted surface area of the body. The motion with the supercavitation is
only way to achieve of the body motion velocities comparable with the sound speed in water
a 1460mps and even exceeding it. The modality of supercavitation projectile is shown as in
Fig 2.1, which is attained in the natural way at the motion velocities V>50mps. It is well known that
the usual supercavity shape is represented as ellipsoid.

Fig.2.1 High Speed cinematography of supercavitation projectile model in the natural (vapour)
The basic tenet and equations for the formation of the supercavity is obtained. The
basic similarity parameter of the supercavitation flows is the cavitation number :
(2.1)
Where P is the ambient water pressure (pressure of liquid far away from the cavity);

Pc is the cavity pressure (pressure of gas or/and vapour inside the cavity);
is the water density; V is the model velocity.
Velocity on its surface is follows:

V = V ( 1 + )

= Constant

For ordinary supercavity the body-cavity drag coefficient is:

Cd = Cdo ( 1 + )

Where Cdo Coefficient of drag when = 0

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When the magnitude of decreases, the supercavity increases. The cavitation number
magnitudes

< 0.1 correspond to the supercavitating regime of flow. In the case of natural

(vapour) supercavitation regime the cavity pressure is constant (i.e. = const.) and equal to the
saturated vapour pressure Pc = Pv = 2350 Pa at the temperature 20C. The respective cavitation
number

is named the vapour or natural cavitation number. If = const, there are three

possibilities of the reduction:

- Increasing the mainstream velocity V;
- Decreasing the difference P = P Pc owing to decreasing the ambient pressure P;
- Decreasing the difference P = P Pc owing to increasing the cavity pressure Pc.
If this cavity enclose the entire body most of the drag could be eliminated. This is
possible by two ways. (1) achieving such a high speed that the water vaporizes near the nose of
the body so that the entire length of the body passes through before the cavity collapses, it will
appear as if the cavity is traveling along with the body; or, (2) supplying gas to the cavity at nearly
ambient pressure. The first technique is known as vaporous or natural cavitation. The second is
termed ventilation or artificial, cavitation. At the moderate flow velocities V ~10 to 50 mps, the
supercavitating regime can be also obtained by blowing air or another gas into the rarefaction zone
behind the cavitator. Such flows are named the artificial cavitation flows or the ventilated flows, and
the obtained cavities are named the ventilated cavities. For simplicity, only natural cavitation is
considered in this thesis and thus the ventilation coefficient is zero.
According to the degree, or size of , three cavitation stages are defined:
1. Initial cavitation is the bubble stage and it is
accompanied by the strong characteristic
noise of collapsing bubbles and is capable
of destroying solid material; for example,
blades of screws, pumps, turbines.
2. Partial cavitation is the stage when arising
cavities cover a cavitating body part. The
cavity pulses and is unstable.
3. Fully developed cavitation supercavitation
is the stage when the cavity dimensions
considerably exceed the body dimensions.
Fig 2.2 Schematic of Cavitation Flow Regimes
These stages are better illustrated [14] in Figure 2.2. This figure shows a fictional
cavitation experiment that holds the velocity constant and allows varying amounts of ambient
pressure; various amounts of cavitation can be observed.
Here, i can be thought of as a type of performance boundary where > i results in no
cavitation. Non-cavitating flows occur at sufficiently high pressures. Supercavitation occurs at very
low pressures where a very long vapour cavity exists and in many cases the cavity wall appears
glassy and stable except near the end of the cavity.
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The supercavitating underwater vehicle exploits supercavitation as a means to

generate the cavity of water vapour at the nose of the vehicle. This cavity engulfs the complete
structure and separates the vehicle hull from the water to eliminate much of the viscous drag and
allow tremendous speeds to be achieved. Although supercavitation can be a very helpful
phenomenon, it presents significant challenges in modelling of supercavitating vehicles [20]. The
main problem consists in that a vehicle must overcome the very high hydrodynamic drag owing to
both the high water density and the high motion velocity. In the supercavitation flow regime, the
cavitator is a most convenient hydrodynamic element for creation of the lateral force. However, due
to special characteristics of supercavitation, HSSV are quite different from traditional underwater
vehicles, and pose technical challenges in the cavity, the control, manoeuvring (guidance), stability
of the vehicle, and external disturbance acting on the tail of the vehicles etc. The vehicle motion
has to be stabilized in both the vertical plane (depth stabilization) and the horizontal plane (course
stabilization), and by the vehicle roll as well. Supercavitating bodies achieve stability through their
interaction with the fluid surrounding the cavity, so the forces acting on supercavitating vehicles are
different from those on conventional submerged bodies. The high longitudinal load corresponding
drag force and the periodic tail-slaps impacts with the interior surface of the cavity are sources of
structural strains and vibrations, which result in the structural failure potentially. The behaviour of
the cavitys tail end becomes a problem. The supercavitys tail end may splash violently around the
projectiles rear, causing significant structural damage to control and propulsive surfaces. Cavity
shape is a function of the history of the vehicle motion and cavitator area. The optimization of
cavitator and the supercavitation flow regime are the key two factors because they give limitations
for the shape and dimensions of the hull of underwater vehicle. The proper calculation of
supercavitation regime is first step. The optimization of the cavitator can be continued on the basic
of it.
At present time, growing of interest in such sport as underwater hunting, which requires
such equipment of underwater hunter as gun. Modern hydrodynamics achievements allow us to
predict gun characteristics at the design stage to a high degree of accuracy. One of methods to
increase gun range is using of cavity for decreasing of its hydrodynamic resistance of moving. This
thesis is dedicated to investigation of appropriate supercavitation phenomenon on axisymmetric
underwater projectiles.

2.2 Basic Similarity Parameters of the Supercavitation Flows

Many parameters influence the cavity length and shape. It follows from the general
theory of similarity of hydrodynamic processes that four independent dimensionless parameters
are the basic similarity criteria of the supercavitating flows[10]: the cavitation number , the Froude
number Fr, the Reynolds number Re and the Weber number We, Ventilation Coefficient CQ
(2.2)
where g is the gravity acceleration;
is the kinematic viscosity coefficient

l is the characteristic linear dimension;

is the water surface tension coefficient

Q Volumetric gas rate at pressure Pc Dcav is the cavitator diameter

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The Froude number characterizes the distorting gravity effect onto the supercavity
shape and therefore governs distortions to the nominally axisymmetric cavity centreline shape.
Theoretically the gravity influence is essential when (

3/2

Fr 2 ) < 4 . It is considerable at relatively

low velocities of flow. The Froude number parallel with the cavitation number is the main similarity
parameter for the ventilated supercavitation flows. However, the mentioned criterion is not valid in
high-speed flows with the natural cavitation. Therefore, the gravity influence onto the supercavity
shape is negligible in this case.
Also, it was established experimentally that the influence of the water viscosity and
capillarity (i.e. the parameters Re and We ) is very weak for the supercavitation flows at the high
speeds and the nonvery- small bodies. The water viscosity effect appears only at the smooth cavity
detachment and near the point of the supercavity closure. The water capillarity effect is inessential
when We > 103. That is why it usually may be neglected in calculation.
When the motion velocity in water is very high V > 1000 m/s, the very weak water
compressibility may appear. The water compressibility influence is characterized by the additional
similarity criterion the Mach number. However, it was established numerically and experimentally
that the water compressibility influence is inconsiderable atleast up to the velocity V = 1300 m/s
corresponding to the Mach number value M = 0.9.
M = V / a,

where a 1460 mps is the sound speed in water

For the artificial supercavitation flows, the additional parameter 1 plays an important role:

= v/

(2.3)

where v is the vapour cavitation number for the same velocity V. When the parameter
increases, an influence of elasticity of the gas filling the cavity increases as well. The value = 1
corresponds to the natural vapour supercavitation. The supercavities are asymptotically stable
when 1 <

= 2.645 and gas-filled axisymmetric supercavities are unstable when > 2.645.

Other parameter used to describe the artificial supercavitating flow is the ventilation
coefficient (CQ). The ventilation coefficient governs the time-dependent behaviour of the cavity as
ventilation gas is entrained by the flow.

2.3 Schemes of the Supercavity Closure

The Kirchhoff scheme of an infinite cavity when = 0 may be considered as the
historically first cavitation scheme. When > 0, it follows from the first Brilluin principle that the
velocity on the cavity boundary is constant, and the cavity boundaries must be everywhere convex.
At the same time in the tail region of the convex stationary cavity the back stagnation point must
exist in which the velocity is equal to zero. This contradiction is called the Brilluin paradox [1]. As is
known, the basic properties of supercavitation flows are well described by the potential theory of
ideal incompressible fluid. However, the potential models do not describe a real flow in the cavity
closure zone where capillarity and viscosity are considerable. This resulted in creation of a number
of schemes of a mathematical closure of the supercavity. Some schemes of mathematical

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closure of a supercavity which eliminate the Brilluin paradox were proposed. Here are the six most
known classical supercavity closure schemes which are mostly applied for practical calculations.
2.3.1 The Opened Schemes:
a. The Joukowski-Roshko Scheme, according to which the cavity walls close on the solid plates
parallel to the mainstream, on which the pressure restores from Pc to P (see Fig. 2.3.a). The
cavity closes on a cylinder with diameter equal to the maximal cavity diameter Dc.

Fig 2.3.a: Schemes of Supercavity Closure by Joukowski-Roshko Scheme

b. The Wu-Fabula Scheme, in which the cavity closes on a liquid wake having the constant width.
This wake shape is determined by the special boundary conditions (see Fig. 2.3.b).

Fig 2.3.b: Schemes of

Supercavity Closure by WuFabula Scheme

2.3.2 The Closed Schemes:

a. The Riabouchinsky Scheme, in which the cavity smoothly closes on a solid surfaceclosurer
located at the cavity end being a mirror of the cavitator (see Fig. 2.3.c). In the closure place, the
body diameter is Db < Dc.

Fig 2.3.c: Schemes of Supercavity Closure by Riabouchinsky Scheme

b. The Efros-Gilbarg Scheme The cavity closes on a cylinder with diameter Db < Dc with a
reentrant jet going on the second sheet of the Riemann surface (see Fig. 2.3.d).

Fig 2.3.d: Schemes of Supercavity Closure by Efros-Gilbarg Scheme

2.3.3 The Semi-Opened Schemes:
a. The first M.Tulins scheme, in which the cavity ends by a single spiral vortex (see Fig. 2.3.e).
b. The second M.Tulins scheme, in which the cavity boundaries where P = Pc pass into the wake
boundaries, on which P = P. The streamlines with different velocities are joined by means of the
double spiral vortices (see Fig. 2.3. f).

Fig 2.3.e,f:

Schemes of
st

nd

Supercavity Closure by: e-1 Tulins scheme; f-2 Tulins scheme

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One should note, that all the schemes give close values of forces which act onto the
cavitator, and a shape of the frontal part of the cavity. This means that a view of the flow in the tail
part weakly influences onto the flow characteristics in its frontal part. Practically, the closure
scheme is chosen from the condition of convenience of calculations in a concrete problem.
2.4 Unsteady Processes during Water Entry
Transition of a body from the medium with lower density air to the medium with
greater density water leads to considerable changing of loads acting onto the body. The
process of the water entry of the body may be divided conditionally onto three stages. For example
lets consider the direct water entry of a wedge or a cone having a finite size (see Fig. 2.4).
The first stage is characterized by fast increase of the load on the body. The counter
motion of water along the body generatrix (so called spray jets) arises under action of the
submerging body. The first stage of submersion called the penetration stage continues from the
body touching the water surface to the separation of the spray jets from the wedge base. At this
time instant the load is maximal.

Fig 2.4 Three Stages of the wedge and cone immersion

After this, the second submersion stage begins. This is the cavity formation stage. In
this case the load on the body abruptly decreases tending to the cavitation drag at the low
cavitation numbers. The second submersion stage is called the transitional one. Then the third final
stage of the submersion occurs the body motion with the developed cavity.
The further penetration of the body into the water maintains the counter motion of the
liquid forming a splash. The atmospheric air rushes into the formed cavity, as a result the pressure
in the splash becomes lower than atmospheric pressure. The splash walls are deformed under
action of the pressure difference becoming dome-shaped up to the closure and isolation of the
cavity from the atmosphere. Such type of the closure is called the cavity surface closure (Fig. 2.5).
During further submersion the cavity volume increases, and the cavity pressure
decreases. The deep cavity closure may occur under action of the hydrostatic water pressure
increasing on the depth (see Fig. 2.6) [1]. As a result of the deep closure the cavity is separated on
two parts. The upper cavity emerges and decomposes onto separate bubbles. The lower cavity
continues to move down together with the body up to repeat of the deep closure or to the full
collapse. At the vertical high-speed water entry, the surface closure usually precedes to the deep

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closure. However, at some conditions (especially for the inclined entry) the deep closure may occur
earlier that the surface closure.

Fig 2.5 Surface Cavity Closure. V=100mps

Fig 2.6 Deep Cavity Closure, V=100mps

The air-filled cavity forming after the water entry of bodies from the atmosphere, closes
on the depth or at the water surface depending on the initial conditions. For instance, for cones
kind of the cavity closure can be determined be the formula:
(2.4)
Where Dn* is the equivalent disk diameter;

C() is the empirical function of the cone angle .

If Fr < Frcr then the deep closure happens earlier then the surface closure, and vice
versa. The more difference between Fr and Frcr the more is time between the surface closure and
the deep closure, and the less is the cavity pressure.
The cavity pressure is usually lower than the atmospheric one at the cavity closure
time. During further immersion of the body, the cavity fast decreases because of both the static
pressure growth and the loss of the air entrapped from the atmosphere.

2.5 Dynamic Forces acting on the Supercavitating Body

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Hydrodynamics of underwater supercavitating vehicles are characterized by coupling

relationship between the model and the cavity walls. Since the forces on a supercavitating body
are so different from those on conventional submerged bodies, hydrodynamic stability issues need
to be completely reassessed. In particular, since the body is wetted only for a tiny percentage of its
length, and since vapour dynamic forces are nearly negligible, the center of pressure will nearly
always be ahead of the center of mass, violating a standard principle of hydrodynamic stability.
Also, the body dynamics consist of at least two qualitatively different phases: pure supercavitating
flight, with only tip contact with the fluid, and states including contacts with the fluid cavity walls.
The hydrodynamic processes when a vehicle is accelerated from the start to the time when the
vapour supercavity is formed are described.
The projectile while moving in the forward direction also starts rotating about its tip in
the vertical plane (mass center). This rotational motion is imparted to the projectile due to
disturbances that occur during firing. Because of this rotation, the tail of the projectile impacts on
the cavity wall. It then bounces back and impacts on the opposite side of the cavity and this type of
oscillatory motion continue till the diameter of the cavity becomes sufficiently small. And the
stability of projectile just depend on these tail-slaps. The impact loads originating from tail slaps
can greatly influence the strength and movement stabilization of the projectile. In the case of pure
supercavitating flight, forces produced by the flow of water vapour may be a significant stabilizing
effect at very high speeds. In the case that the body touches the cavity walls, these contacts may
be of long-duration (planing), or intermittent (impacts). In this study, lets consider intermediate
speed regimes where long-duration cavity contact (planing) does not occur, and where vapour
dynamic forces are negligible.
The supercavitating body is only marginally in contact with the water at the cavitator
on front of the vehicle because of supercavitation. The drag force generated at the cavitator
compresses axially the body. In addition, the time-dependent and high underwater velocity
complicates the load applied at the cavitator. To derive the equations of motion, the following
assumptions are made:
- The motion of the vehicle is confined to a plane.
- The projectile rotates about its mass center and this effect of rolling angular is negligible..
- The motion of the projectile is not influenced by the presence of gas, water or water drops in
the cavity.
There into, lifting forces exist whenever the fluid is in contact with body. For a
supercavitating vehicle, most of the body is inside the cavity. Only a portion of the afterbody and
the cavitator are in contact with the fluid. Thus the lifting forces on cavitator and afterbody are only
hydrodynamic forces. The coefficients of lift and drag for the tail and cavitator are functions of their
angle of attack, immersion, sweepback angle, angle of rotation etc. Various types of forces and
moments are experienced mainly in longitudinal plane by a moving vehicle in water [21]. Ignoring
drag and propulsive, the longitudinal force can be decomposed into three component, there upon
details of these kinds of hydrodynamic forces can be dealt as follows:
-

Hydrodynamic Lifting Force and moment caused by cavitator ahead (YH), FH, MH

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Hydrodynamic Planing Force and moment acting on the wetted part of the trailing edge (Y T)
arising due to interaction between the model tail and the cavity wall FT, MT and

The Gravitational Forces Fg (mg)acting on the body at G.

The mathematical model of the forces schematic diagram of a supercavitating vehicle in the
longitudinal plane is shown in Fig.2.7.

Fig. 2.7 Coordinate systems and scheme of the forces of a Supercavitating Projectile.
The centre of the tip of the body is assumed fixed and the model rotates around that
point in vertical plane because of initial disturbance angular velocity. The water is assumed moving
in the opposite direction of actual movement of the projectile, and the tail of the model impacts with
the water/cavity wall successively. To simply the analysis, the drag of the vapour in cavity and the
gravity of the model are ignored. (O0 x0 y0 z0) is the earth coordinate system with origin at muzzle, (
O1 x1 y1 z1 ) the parallel displace earth coordinate system with origin at mass center, (O 2 x2 y2 z2 )
the fixed coordinate system with origin at mass center, (O 3 x3 y3 z3) the velocity coordinate system
with origin at mass center, (O4 x4 y4 z4) the cavitator coordinate system with origin at cavitator
center, and (O5 x5 y5 z5) is the tail coordinate system with origin at tail center. The O 2 x2 axis
coincides with the longitudinal axis of the projectile. The O3 x3 axis coincides with the velocity of the
projectile mass center. FHD , FHL are the cavitator drag and lift, FTS the tail-slap force, and FTD is
the drag force at the tail due to impact. The fluid forces acting on the cavitator on the tip
experienced by the vehicle during its forward motion is expressed as FHD and its moment about
O1z1 axis are given by the following equations.

FHL = 0.5 CHL AV2

FHD = 0.5 CHD AV2
CHL = CHLO(1+) Sinn Cosn
CHD = CHDO(1+) Cos2n
CHLO = CHLO = 0.82
The motion of the projectile is governed by the following three scalar equations.

FTDX2 Cosn (FTDY2 + FTS) Sinn + FG Sinn

FTDX2 Sinn + (FTDY2 + FTS) Cosn FG Cosn

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= MHZ2 + MTDZ2 + MTSZ2

Where is the density of the fluid (water),
A is the cross-section area of the cavitator,
V is the velocity of forward motion of the body (mass center.),
L is the length of the body,
CD is the cavitator drag coefficient (non-dimensional constant),
n is the attack angle of the projectile,
is the cavitation number,
CD0 is the cavitator drag coefficient at zero angle of the attack and zero cavitation number.
CF and MF are coefficients of lift and moment.
denotes the body pitch angle
M is the mass of the projectile;
IZ is the moment of inertia about the lateral axis

FTS is the slapping force on the tail of the projectile

FTD is the drag force on the tail of the projectile
FHD is the drag force on the head of the projectile
FHL is the lift force on the head of the projectile
2.6 Direct Water Impact of a Disk
Let the disk mass is m, the velocity at instant of touching the water is

V0. If the water is

considered as an ideal incompressible liquid, then the infinite high pressures will act on the disk
during the infinite small time interval [19]. One can introduce the finite value the impulse
pressure.
(2.5)

The boundary value problem for the velocity potential in the cylindrical coordinate system is as
follows:

(2.6)

(2.7)
It shows that the velocity on the free surface is directed against the impact direction and has the
characteristic concentric splash near the disk edge.
With the relations (6.2) and (6.8) we determine the distribution of the impulsive pressure on the
disk surface:

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where V1 is the disk velocity after the impact. Integrating this expression along the disk surface,
The summary impulsive force obtained is:
(2.9)

On the other hand, according to the theorem of the momentum we have Fi =

Comparing the expressions (2.9) and (2.10), we determine the velocity V1:

m(V0 V1)

(2.10)
(2.11)

where m* is the so-called impact added mass of the disk. Note that formula (2.11) is valid for the
case of the impact of any floating body, if its impact added mass is known.

2.7 Approximation Relations for the Axisymmetric Supercavity

Consider the steady axially symmetric flow over a supercavitating disk in the
unbounded imponderable fluid with the velocity at infinity V. Let r = R(x) is the equation of the
cavity generatrix. The cylindrical coordinate system Oxr connected with the cavitator is introduced.
Analysis of photograph of supercavities past the blunted cavitator when

is small permits to select

three characteristic parts of the cavity (see Fig. 2.8).

The frontal part I adjoining to the cavitator has length of order of Dn. It is characterized
by strong curvature of the free boundary. The next main part II occupies approximately of the
cavity length Lc. Finally, the tail part III has unstable unsteady boundaries at the moderate
magnitudes of . It is impossible to determine its shape using the potential theory. The frontal part
walls have great curvature and are determined by the cavitator shape. They do not depend on the
cavitation number.

Fig 2.8 Scheme of an Axisymmetric Supercavity

For the main supercavity part past the disk, we obtained the empirical 1/3 law for the
steady radius of the cavity are

(2.16)
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Where R(x) is the current cavity radius, disk radius Rn = Dn / 2.

Lc is the maximum length of the cavity; Rc is the maximum radius of the cavity
The frontal cavity part at x < 2.0 is described by the formula (2.16). In this case, the
CFD data was used which were obtained for natural vapour supercavities in range of the = 0.012
to 0.057. An advantage of the approximation formula (2.16) is that it gives explicit dependence of
the cavity shape on the cavitation number. From the formula (2.16) one has the following
expressions for the maximum diameter of the cavity.

2.8 Making a Supercavitating Projectile

Although the idea may seem simple, making a supercavitating projectile is a daring
challenge. The supercavitating body is mainly divided into three sections: The Nose; The
Expansion Cylindrical Part; Propelling the body. The technological hurdles to be overcome are
many. The most important question is how to propel the body if no other part except the nose is in
contact with the surrounding fluid. The nose rather than being streamlined should be flat. Also the
enormous drag exerted on the blunt nose would literally crush any material.
The Nose (Cavitator) Unlike conventional noses, a supercavitating body has a rather blunt nose.
The nose being the only part in contact with water it is subjected to extremely high stresses. The
pressure that the nose has to withstand at high speeds will be very high. Ordinary materials under
these conditions will buckle and eventually crush. So in order to withstand such high stresses, the
right selection of the nose material is another challenge. The use of composite light weight
materials like graphite epoxy or Aluminum/ composites in honey comb structure will be effective.
Water is forced to flow off the edge of the nose at such an angle that it cannot wrap
around the surface of the body. Note that each concept involves some sort of cavitator with a clean
edge to provide the sharp drop in pressure required to form a clean cavity near the nose of the
body. Once a super cavity is formed which completely encloses the object, the drag force is nearly
eliminated as the only leading edge nose of the object actually contacts liquid water. The rest of
the object is surrounded by low-pressure water vapour, significantly lowering the drag on the
supercavitating object. With an appropriate nose shape and a speed over 180kph, the entire
projectile may reside in a vapour cavity [3]. Since drag is proportional to the density of the
surrounding fluid, the drag on a supercavitating projectile is dramatically reduced, allowing
supercavitating projectiles to attain higher speeds than conventional projectiles. In water, a rough
approximation predicts that a supercavitating projectile has 200,000 times less skin friction than a
normal projectile. The potential applications are impressive.

2.9 Basic Shape of the Supercavitating Projectile Models

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Four different front profiles for supercavitating vehicles based on cavity theory and the
Granville streamlined equation are designed. Experiments were done using these front profiles in
the NSTL. The experiments indicated that the front profile of a supercavitating vehicle effects
supercavity generation. Therefore, the study about the supercavitation generation is very important
for the successful transition of a supercavitating vehicle from an unstable state (vehicle is partly
surrounded by water) to a supercavitation state (vehicle is surrounded by gas). In this paper, the
emphasis is mostly put on how to improve the front shape of the vehicles.
When the supercavitating vehicle is moving, the vehicle must be enveloped by liquid.
So the profile of the vehicle is always designed to be streamline. That is to say, the slop and
curvature of the front profile of the vehicle must be continuous, including the boundary points.
Considering the characteristics of the front profile of the supercavitating vehicle, a series of front
shapes are designed. At present, the four general shape types of the supercavitating vehicle
profiles are selected and shown in Fig 2.9(a-d). Linear expansion is usually employed to design the
expansion section. This is also the most popular form used in domestic and foreign studies [2].
In this study, the volumes of the models were chosen for simulation and some slenderness ratios
always kept uniform. The consideration is
illustrated

by

the

calculation

results

performed with the ANSYS FLUENT

software.

The

body

shape

for

the

standard SC-projectile was designed

with the ANSYS ICEM software so that
the

model

moves

in

the

economy

planning regime along the marching part

of the flying path (see Fig. 2.9). The
foreside of the projectile model is a cone
and a column locates behind it. The
material of the body is Aluminium. It is
supposed

that

the

model

moves

horizontally with the steady velocity V

along the marching part of the flying path. As the standard model of SC-projectile in all the
calculations here used the model having the following main parameters:
L represents the model length=7.5 mm;
Cavitator disk diameter Dn;
Max diameter of projectile Db=6 mm;
Average body density b = 2.7 g/cm3 ;
Youngs modulus is 70103 MPa.
Poissons ratio is 0.3;
Model velocity V = 100 m/s;

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CHAPTER 2: THEORY OF SUPERCAVITATION

Project Report 2013

M.Tech.

Fig.2.9 Design Scheme of the standard SC Projectile model

2.10 Different Types of Front profiles of underwater projectiles:
In the present study, four different frond end profiles are studied. The first profile
(Profile1) is of an ordinary bullet. Profile2 is obtained by modifying profile1, here a cavitator is
added. Two more profiles were selected from references [30] for present study and named as
profile3 and profile4 respectively.

Fig 2.9.a

Fig 2.9.b

Fig 2.9.c

Fig 2.9.d

Profile 1

Profile 2

Profile 3

Profile 4

Dn = 5 mm

Dn = 5 mm

Dn = 3 mm

Dn = 4 mm

The CFD method is used to calculate the geometric characteristics and the pressure distribution
characteristics of the four models in the Chapter V. The results are presented and compared in the
Chapter VII.

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