Spatiotemporal analysis of sheet and cloud cavitation and its damage potential

The cavitation regime has a substantial influence on the damage potential, thus it has to be considered in any specific investigation. For this purpose, we set up a test rig at the Technische Universität Darmstadt using a Circular Leading Edge hydrofoil (CLE) to analyse the damage potential of sheet and cloud cavitation. Exceeding a critical Reynolds number Re_c, the cavitation regime transitions from harmless sheet cavitation to aggressive cloud cavitation. High-speed recordings of the cavitation regime are correlated with high frequency pressure data from a wall-mounted piezoelectric pressure transducer. Spatial and temporal content of the cavitating flow are captured applying proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) to the high-speed recordings. In order to determine the damage potential of the cavitation regime we apply a copper foil on the hydrofoil surface, on which plastic, crater-shaped deformations due to bubble collapses occur. Images of the surface are recorded before and after each run via two-dimensional Pit-Count microscopy. We correlate spatial modes from the cavitating flow field with the eroded surface rate from pitting tests leading to the result that cloud cavitation associated with increasing cloud size is more aggressive. A power law is identified where pitting rate increases with fourteenth power of the Reynolds number.