Numerical Method to Determine the Inception of Propeller Tip Vortex Cavitation Based on Bubble Dynamics

Due to the scale effect, tip vortex cavitation (TVC) is the earliest type of cavitation that occurs on real ship propellers. As a result, experts in the ship field have been paying close attention to the accurate prediction of propeller TVC inception for a long time. The motion and growth of the microscopic nuclei in the water have a significant influence on TVC inception. However, the minimum pressure coefficient method—a common method at present—based on the traditional Eulerian framework, neglects the influence of microscopic nuclei and therefore cannot accurately predict the cavitation inception. Moreover, the numerical prediction method for cavitation inception, which is based on bubble dynamics models and considers the influence of nuclei, has not established a set of unified and specific discrimination criteria applicable to propeller cavitation inception. In order to make up for the shortcomings of traditional prediction models and the existing methods based on bubble dynamics in the prediction of TVC inception, we propose a new discrimination method for propeller TVC inception based on bubble dynamics in this paper. The comparison with experimental results demonstrates that our proposed method allows us to predict propeller TVC inception more accurately. In addition, the effect mechanism of tip vortex flow characteristics on nuclei evolution is further investigated, and it is found that when approaching the low-pressure region at a vortex core under the influence of tip vortex suction, nuclei grow explosively under the continuous action of the low pressure at the vortex core until they reach their maximum sizes and then collapse rapidly.