Study on the Influence of Temperature on the Temporal and Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Natural Cavitating Flow around a Vehicle

Cavitation involves complex multiphase turbulence and has important research significance. In this study, the Schnerr–Sauer cavitation model was used to model cavitation, and the detached-eddy simulation (DES) method was used to calculate the unsteady natural cavitating flow. The predicted results are in good agreement with experimentally measured cavity evolution and pressure values, demonstrating the effectiveness of this numerical method. Low temperature causes changes in the properties of water. The density of water at 0° is 999.84 kg/m3 and the density of water at 25° is 997.04. Cavitation evolution and shedding are analyzed at temperatures of 0 °C and 25 °C. The results showed that lower temperature increased the frequency of cavitation and enhanced pressure pulsation. At the same time, low temperature also increases the frequency of cavity shedding and shortens the cycle. In addition, based on the Ω method, the difference between vortex dynamics at various temperatures was studied, and it was found that different cavity stages showed different vortex structure characteristics, and lower temperature would aggravate the change of wake vortex structure. At the same time, the analysis of the turbulence characteristics in the downstream of the cavity shows that the lower temperature reduces the velocity pulsation and reduces the turbulence integral scale. At the end of the model, large-scale pulsations are transformed into small-scale pulsations.