Study of non-constant local cavitation suppression in micro-wedge structure

To alleviate the negative impacts of cavitation phenomenon on hydrodynamic machinery, such as mechanical vibration and noise, a hydrofoil model is established based on the micro-wedge structure, and numerical simulation of the hydrofoil is carried out by using the modified turbulence model k–omega shear stress transport (SST k–ω) to analyze the lift coefficient of drag, pressure pulsation, cavitation volume fraction, cavitation volume morphology, and turbulent kinetic energy distribution, and to reveal the inhibition of cavitation mechanism of the chord direction of the placement and the height of the micro-wedge structure coupling. The results show that the height of the micro-wedge structure determined by the thickness of the boundary layer is an important parameter affecting the cavitation performance, and the micro-wedge structure with a smaller height will produce better cavitation suppression, and the height of 0.05 mm has the best suppression effect, and the suppression of the main frequency of pulsation and the amplitude of pulsation shows a positive effect. The micro-wedge structure arranged on the hydrofoil can delay the change cycle of the cavitation volume to different degrees, in which the chordwise position of 3.5 mm has the best cavitation suppression effect, and the cavitation suppression rate is about 16.7%.