Cavitation shape of the three-dimensional slender at a small attack angle in a steady flow

In this paper, based on the boundary element method, the cavitation shape of the three-dimensional slender at a small attack angle in a steady flow is simulated through the iterative method, while Dirichlet boundary conditions and Neumann boundary conditions are satisfied in cavitation and slender respectively. The linear triangular elements are adopted and the control points are arranged in grid nodes. The velocity potential for cavity surface is determined through an iterative method in a local orthogonal coordinate system, and then the distribution of cavitation thickness can be determined by the boundary integral equation. To prevent the remeshing operation in the iterative process, the Lagrange interpolation method is used to determine the thickness at the end of cavity. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The influence of those on cavitation shape of the three-dimensional slender are investigated, such as cavitation number, attack angle and cone angle. Numerical results show that the cavitation shape of the three-dimensional slender is asymmetric at an attack angle and is analogous to the cavitation stacking in the lee side. While with the decrease in the cavity number or the increase in the cone angle, the asymmetry for the cavity shape will be more serious.