FORMATION OF A VENTILATED CAVITY IN A TURBULENT FLOW REGIME AROUND A DISK CAVITATOR

The paper considers the numerical modeling of forced cavitation for a cavitator in a fluid flow. The simulation was performed in the OpenFOAM 12software environment using the incompressibleVoF numerical model and the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method. The VOF method provides tracking ofthe water-gas interface during cavity formation. An incompressible two-phase flow (water-air) is considered without taking into account gravity, whichallowed us to formulate the problem in an axisymmetric formulation, which in turn reduces computational costs and simplifies flow analysis. The calculationwas performed in a nonstationary mode until a quasi-stationary flow condition was reached. The analysis of pressure and concentration fieldsshowed that when a cavity is formed, a significant part of the body surface is isolated from the fluid. This reduces the pressure on the correspondingarea compared to the pressure on the corresponding area without a cavity and, as a result, reduces hydrodynamic drag and associated losses. It has beenshown that the formation of a ventilated cavity around a body during its movement in water can significantly reduce drag. The results obtained are important for further analysis of the influence of artificially created cavities on drag and open up possibilities for optimizing ventilation systems in orderto minimize energy consumption. Thus, the feasibility of using air cavities as an effective method of reducing hydrodynamic drag for moving bodies inliquids, in particular underwater vehicles, has been confirmed.