Abstract:

In order to improve the anti-cavitating performance of the hydrofoil, the suction side of the two-dimensional foil was transformed. By integrating the technology of the geometric parameterization with the panel method and the optimization algorithm, the hydrofoil was reconstructed with anti-cavitating consideration. The modification was achieved by setting up a vaulting barrier on the suction side of the section and using cubic B-spline to parameterizedly express the shape. The basis data for the genetic algorithm objective function which was founded for the NACA0010 airfoil optimization, were accessed by the panel method program in forecasting the foil performance under a certain condition. The instantaneous simulation of the prototype and the modified foil flow with cavitating were conducted by using RANS method and RNG k-ε turbulence model. The differences between the contours of gas volume fraction, which reflects the degree of foil in cavitating, were acquired. The result confirmed the intended purpose of the modification. This hydrofoil design method provided reference for the three-dimensional hydrofoil design.

Key words: hydrofoil design, cavitation, cubic B-spline, panel method, genetic algorithm