Unsteady Numerical Simulation of Cavitation in Axial Turbine

Abstract

A 3-D numerical study has been carried out in order to study the unsteady, turbulent, void growth and cavitation simulation inside the passage of the axial flow turbine. In this study a 3D Navier-Stokes code was used (CFDRC, 2008) to model the two-phase flow field around a four blades axial turbine. The governing equations are discretized on a structured grid using an upwind difference scheme. The numerical simulation used the standard k-? turbulence model to account for the turbulence effect. The numerical simulation of void growth and cavitation in an axial turbine was studied under unsteady calculating. Pressure distribution and vapour volume fraction were completed versus time at different condition. The computational code has been validated by comparing the predicated numerical results with the previous studies. The comparison shows good agreement.