Modeling and computation of cavitation flows: a two-phase flow approach

This paper deals with the modeling and the numerical simulation of cavitation phenomena. The cavitation nuclei come from wall nucleation or are pre-existing in the flow. Vapor bubbles generated are carried by the flow and expand in the regions where the local pressure is below the saturation with a tendency to agglomerate into slug bubbles. Compressible, unsteady, turbulent 3D two-phase flow is computed by the NEPTUNE CFD solver, developed jointly by EDF R and D and CEA. The numerical approach is based on a finite volume co-located cell-centered approach and makes use of an original pressure-based multi-field coupling algorithm. The model predictions compared with experimental data on enough selective local variables showed that satisfactory agreement could be obtained without any floating parameter to adjust the data. (authors)