Re-entrant jet modeling of partial cavity flow on three-dimensional hydrofoils

A potential-based lower-order surface panel method is developed to calculat e the flow around a three-dimensional hydrofoil with an attached sheet cavi ty at the lending edge. A Dirichlet type dynamic boundary condition on the cavity surface and a Newmann boundary condition on the wetted surface are e nforced. The cavity shape is initially assumed and the kinematic boundary c ondition on the cavity surface is satisfied by iterating the cavity length and shape. Upon convergence, both the dynamic boundary condition and the ki nematic boundary condition oil the cavity surface are satisfied and a re-en trant jet develops at the cavity closure, The flow at the closure of the ca vity and the mechanism of the re-entrant jet formation is investigated. Goo d agreement is found between the calculated results and MIT's experiments o n a 3-D hydrofoil.