Cavitation Process Simulation for Automotive Applications with an Isothermal Solver Approach

This paper contains a brief description of the numerical approach used to simulate the flow of cavitating liquids that was implemented in FloEFD™ software. Some computational results obtained using this approach are presented. The calculations used 3D Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the k-e turbulence model and equilibrium cavitation model.

It is assumed that this process occurs at a fixed temperature (so-called isothermal cavitation). The validity of this assumption is confirmed by numerous test data. Since the liquids heat capacity is large enough to neglect the heat generated in the phase transition, it practically doesn't change the liquids temperature. This approach allows a minimized number of required thermodynamic properties of the liquid. A new cavitation calculation method of a 2-phase-2-solver (Hybrid density- and pressure-based splitting scheme) calculation is introduced that applies appropriate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solvers to the low and high compressible region and therefore creating a hybrid solver splitting scheme.

Application examples for different industrial liquids are shown with flow in injectors, pumps and around hydro foils and present the validation of the model compared to theory and experiment. The comparison of the calculation results against test data shows a satisfying agreement of the model.