Propeller Cavitation in Non-Uniform Flow and Correlation with the Near Pressure Field†
CNR-INSEAN, National Research Council - Marine Technology Research Institute, Via di Vallerano 139, Rome 00128, Italy
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
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This paper is an extended version of our paper published in Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, St. John’s, NL, Canada, 8–13 August 2004; Volume 4, pp. 1–13.
Academic Editor: Moustafa Abdel-Maksoud
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2016, 4(4), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse4040070
Received: 28 August 2016 / Revised: 12 October 2016 / Accepted: 22 October 2016 / Published: 5 November 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Propellers and Propulsion)
An experimental study is carried out in a cavitation tunnel on a propeller operating downstream of a non-uniform wake. The goal of this work is to establish quantitative correlations between the near pressure field and the cavitation pattern that takes place on the propeller blades. The pressure field is measured at the walls of the test section and in the near wake of the propeller and is combined with quantitative high-speed image recording of the cavitation pattern. Through harmonic analysis of the pressure data and image processing techniques that allow retrieving the cavitation extension and volume, we discuss the potential sources that generate the pressure fluctuations. Time correlations are unambiguously established between pressure peak fluctuations and cavitation collapse events, based on the Rayleigh collapse time. Finally, we design a model to predict the cavitation-induced pressure fluctuations from the derivation of the cavitation volume acceleration. A remarkable agreement is observed with the actual pressure field.
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Keywords:
marine propellers; cavitation pattern; unsteady cavitation; induced pressure fluctuations; high-speed visualization; volume acceleration; cavitation-pressure correlations
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MDPI and ACS Style
Alves Pereira, F.; Di Felice, F.; Salvatore, F. Propeller Cavitation in Non-Uniform Flow and Correlation with the Near Pressure Field. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2016, 4, 70.
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