Numerical simulation of unsteady cavitating flows using a fractional step method preserving the minimum/maximum principle for the void fraction

Cavitation is one of the most demanding physical phenomena influencing the performance of hydraulic machines. It is therefore important to predict correctly its inception and development, in order to quantify the performance drop it induces, and also to characterize the resulting flow instabilities. The aim of this work is to develop an algorithm for the numerical simulation of cavitation in an industrial CFD code (Code_saturne). It is based on a fractional step method which preserves the minimum/maximum principle of the void fraction. An implicit solver, based on a transport equation of the void fraction coupled with the Navier-Stokes equations is proposed. A specific numerical treatment of the cavitation source term provides physical values of the void fraction (between 0 and 1) without including any artificial numerical limitation. The influence of RANS turbulence models on the simulation of cavitation on a 2D Venturi type geometry is then studied. It confirms the capability of the k-ϵ model and the k-ω SST model with the modification proposed by Reboud et al. (1998) to reproduce the main features of the unsteady sheet cavity behaviour.