Numerical simulation of cavitating ow using the upstream

nite element method

Tomomi Uchiyama
1
School of Informatics and Sciences, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
Received 5 November 1996; received in revised form 12 January 1998; accepted 3 March 1998
Abstract
A nite element method is proposed to predict cavitating ows in arbitrarily shaped channels. An upwind scheme,
based on the PetrovGalerkin method using an exponential weighting function, is employed to eliminate the numerical
instability due to the advection term. The solution algorithm is parallel to a fractional step method. The calculation
domain is divided into quadrilateral elements. The pressure is dened at the centroid of the element and assumed to
be constant within the element. The other variables, such as the velocity and void fraction, are dened on the nodes.
Cavitating ows around a circular cylinder are simulated by the present nite element method. The cavitation occur-
rence relates closely to the vortex motion of the water in the sheared layer in accordance with experimental observa-
tions, and the cavitation regions almost coincide with the regions where cavitation bubbles are observed frequently
in experiments. This indicates that the present method is indeed applicable to the prediction of cavitating
ows. 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Computational uid dynamics; Cavitation; Upstream nite element method; Bubbly ow; Vortex
shedding
1. Introduction
Cavitation is one of the phenomena that must be taken into account when designing and op-
erating hydraulic machinery. Since cavitation in hydraulic machinery results not only in poor per-
formance but also noise, vibration and erosion, much attention has been devoted to methods for
predicting cavitating ow, especially numerical methods.
Based on the assumption that the ow is inviscid, various numerical methods have been thus
far proposed to simulate cavitating ows; the conformal mapping method [1,2], the singularity
method [35], and the panel method [6]. The ow around hydrofoil [1,4] and within a centrifugal
impeller [2,5] could be calculated using these inviscid ow models. Experimental observations
have revealed that the cavitation appearance relates closely to the viscous phenomena of the liq-
uid-phase, such as the boundary layer and the vortex motion. Recently, viscous ow models,
which regard the cavitating ow as the bubbly ow containing spherical bubbles, were introduced
Applied Mathematical Modelling 22 (1998) 235250
1
Fax: 81 52 789 5187; e-mail: uchiyama@info.human.nagoya-u.ac.jp.
0307-904X/98/$19.00 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 0 7 - 9 0 4 X ( 9 8 ) 1 0 0 0 3 - 3
to provide highly accurate calculations. In the viscous ow models, the NavierStokes equation
including cavitation bubble is solved in conjunction with Rayleigh's equation governing the
change in the bubble radius. Kubota et al. [7] analyzed the ows around a hydrofoil by the nite
dierence method, and Shimada et al. [8] calculated the ow in a fuel injection pump for diesel
engines by the control volume method. The predominating regions of high volumetric fraction
of bubbles obtained by these methods agree well with the cavitation regions observed experimen-
tally.
On the other hand, the analyses of ows in arbitrarily shaped channels are frequently nec-
essary to solve practical problems in many engineering elds. There is a growing tendency for
the nite element method to be employed in such analysis [9,10]. This is because the method
can represent precisely the geometry of the calculation domain and one can construct locally
ner computational meshes. The nite element method promises to analyze successfully cavita-
ting ows in an arbitrarily shaped channel, but it has been rarely applied to cavitating ow
analysis.
In this paper, a nite element method for cavitating ows is proposed. The analytical model,
which was used for the nite dierence analysis of the bubbly ows in a rotating straight channel
in a previous paper [11], is modied and applied in the present method. This model largely cor-
responds to the aforementioned viscous ow model. The governing equations are solved by a -
nite element method based on a fractional step method [9]. An upwind scheme using an
exponential weighting function is employed in the nite element formulation to eliminate the nu-
merical instability due to the advection term. The cavitating ow around a circular cylinder is also
calculated by the present method. The appearance of cavitation relates closely to the vortex mo-
tion of the liquid in accordance with experimental observations [12], and the cavitation regions
calculated almost coincide with those observed in the experiment. Thus, the method is found
to be indeed applicable to the prediction of cavitating ows.
2. Basic equations
2.1. Assumptions
In a previous paper [11], the bubbly ows in a rotating straight channel were analyzed by the
nite dierence method using an analytical model proposed by Matsumoto et al. [13]. In the pre-
sent study, the model is modied and applied to the nite element analysis of cavitating ow. The
assumptions employed are as follows:
1. Cavitating ow is a bubbly ow, in which cavitation bubbles disperse uniformly and there is no
slip velocity between the bubble and the liquid. This no slip assumption yields an appropriate
approximation when the bubbles are suciently small.
2. The mass and momentum of the bubble are very small and negligible compared with those of
the liquid.
3. The liquid is incompressible. This assumption is parallel to that of the Kubota's study [7].
4. The gases inside the bubble are composed of a vapor and a non-condensable gas. The bubbles
change isothermally in volume, so the pressure of the vapor is constant. The non-condensable
gas obeys the perfect gas law, and the mass is conserved. These assumptions mean that the
liquid and the bubbles ow isothermally without phase change.
5. The bubbles maintain their spherical shape. This assumption is appropriate when the bubbles
are small.
6. Neither fragmentation nor coalescence of the bubble occurs.
236 T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250
2.2. Governing equations
The conservation equations for the mass and momentum of the cavitating ow are expressed
by the following under assumptions (1)(3).
o
ot
(1 a)
o
ox
i
[(1 a)u
i
[ = 0; (1)
ou
i
ot
u
j
ou
i
ox
j
=
1
(1 a)q
op
ox
i

1
q
os
ij
ox
j
; (2)
where
s
ij
= l
ou
i
ox
j

ou
j
ox
i

2
3
d
ij
ou
m
ox
m
_ _
:
Here the void fraction a is dened with the use of a bubble radius r and a number density of bub-
ble n
b
,
a = (4=3)pr
3
n
b
; (3)
where n
b
is constant all over the ow eld under assumptions (1) and (6).
The relationship between the bubble radius r and the static pressure of bubble p is expressed by
the following equation when neglecting the eects of surface tension and viscous damping for sim-
plicity from the same viewpoint as Kubota's study [7] under assumptions Eqs. (3)(5).
r
D
2
r
Dt
2

3
2
Dr
Dt
_ _
2
=
1
q
p
v

r
0
r
_ _
3
p
g0
p
_ _
; (4)
D
Dt
=
o
ot
u
j
o
ox
j
;
where r
0
and p
g0
are the bubble radius and the pressure of non-condensable gas inside the bubble
on the boundary upstream of the calculation domain S. The calculations with considering the ef-
fects of surface tension and viscous damping were also carried out. The numerical results, such as
the void fraction distributions, were almost the same as those obtained by neglecting the eects.
The boundary of S is postulated to consist of the inlet (C
0
), the wall (C
1
) and the outlet (C
2
).
The boundary conditions are assumed to be given as:
u = u on C
0
and C
1
;
c
j
(d
ij
p s
ij
) = 0 on C
2
;
(5)
where the overbar denotes a known value, and c
j
is the direction cosine of the unit vector normal
to the boundary with respect to the x
j
axis.
3. Numerical method
3.1. Time-integration method
The governing equations, except for the algebraic equation (3), are solved by a nite element
method. In this section, the dierence equations are shown to outline the time-integration method.
The conservation equation of mass, Eq. (1):
(1 a
n1
) (1 a
n
)
Dt

o
ox
i
[(1 a
n
)u
n1
i
[ = 0: (6)
T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250 237
The conservation equation of momentum, Eq. (2):
u
n1
i
= u
n
i
Dt u
n
j
ou
n
i
ox
j

1
(1 a
n
)q
op
n1
ox
i

1
q
os
n
ij
ox
j
_ _
: (7)
The equation governing the change in the bubble radius, Eq. (4):
r
n
f
n1
f
n
Dt
u
n
j
of
n
ox
j
_ _

3
2
(f
n
)
2
=
1
q
p
v

r
0
r
n
_ _
3
p
g0
p
n1
_ _
; (8)
where
f
n1
=
r
n1
r
n
Dt
u
n
j
or
n
ox
j
: (9)
The void fraction a is obtained from the following equation
a
n1
= (4=3)p(r
n1
)
3
n
b
: (10)
When the ow at a time step t = nDt is known, the solution at the next time step t = (n 1)Dt
can be calculated by solving Eqs. (6)(10) simultaneously. For the simultaneous calculation of
Eqs. (6) and (7), the following two-step procedure based on a fractional step method [9] is em-
ployed.
In the rst step, the predicted velocity ~ u
i
is estimated by the following
~ u
i
= u
n
i
Dt u
n
j
ou
n
i
ox
j

1
q
os
n
ij
ox
j
_ _
: (11)
When Eq. (11) is subtracted from Eq. (7), the following equation is obtained:
u
n1
i
= ~ u
i

1
(1 a
n
)q
o/
ox
i
; (12)
where / is a function satisfying
p
n1
= /=Dt: (13)
In order to calculate /, the following Poisson equation is derived by substituting Eq. (12) into
Eq. (6):
o
ox
i
o/
ox
i
_ _
= q
a
n
a
n1
Dt

o
ox
i
[(1 a
n
)~ u
i
[
_ _
; (14)
where the boundary conditions for Eq. (14) are given by the following equations derived from
Eq. (5):
o/=oc = 0 on C
0
and C
1
;
/ = 0 on C
2
:
(15)
In the second step, u
n1
i
and p
n1
are calculated by substituting / obtained from Eq. (14) into
Eqs. (12) and (13), respectively.
3.2. Finite element equations
The calculations in this study correspond to a two-dimensional ow eld. The calculation do-
main S is divided into quadrilateral elements. Fig. 1 shows an element. The pressure p is dened
at the center of each element and assumed to be constant within the element. The other variables
are dened on the vertices (nodes) of the element, and their values in the element are interpolated
using the shape function N
b
(b = 1 ~ 4): N
b
is expressed in local coordinates n
i
(i = 1; 2) as shown
in Fig. 1 as follows:
238 T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250
N
b
= (1 n
1
n
1b
)(1 n
2
n
2b
)=4 (b = 1; 2; 3; 4); (16)
where n
i
is dened in a region 1 6n
i
61; and n
ib
(b = 1 ~ 4) denotes the n
i
coordinate of a node
b:
When applying the Galerkin method to the dierence equations (Eqs. (8), (9), (12)(14)), the
following nite element equations for each element are obtained:
M
ab
f
n1
b
= M
ab
f
n
b
F
n
1a
Dt; (17)
M
ab
r
n1
b
= M
ab
r
n
b
F
n
2a
Dt; (18)
M
ab
u
n1
ib
= M
ab
~ u
ib
F
n
3ia
; (19)
p
n1
= S
a
/
a
=(S
e
Dt); (20)
K
ab
/
b
= F
n
4a
; (21)
where
F
n
1a
= C
abcj
u
n
jb
f
n
c
M
ab
3(f
n
b
)
2
2r
n
b

1
q
p
v
r
n
b

r
3
0
p
g0
(r
n
b
)
4

p
n1
r
n
b
_ _ _ _
;
F
n
2a
= C
abcj
u
n
jb
r
n
c
M
ab
f
n1
b
; F
n
3ia
= C
abci
/
c
(1 a
n
b
)q
;
F
n
4a
= M
ab
(a
n
b
a
n1
b
)q=Dt R
abi
(1 a
n
b
)q~ u
ib
;
M
ab
=
_
N
a
N
b
dS; S
a
=
_
N
a
dS; C
abcj
=
_
N
a
N
b
oN
c
ox
j
dS; K
ab
=
_
oN
a
ox
j
oN
b
ox
j
dS:
Here the void fraction at the node b; a
b
is calculated by the following:
a
b
= (4=3)p(r
n1
b
)
3
n
b
: (22)
The nite element equation for Eq. (11) is derived with the use of an upwind scheme of the
PetrovGalerkin type to eliminate the numerical instability due to the advection term. The up-
wind scheme using the exponential weighting function W proposed by Kakuda and Tosaka
[14] is employed in this study. The function W is expressed by
W
b
= e
a
1
(n
1
n
1b
)a
2
(n
2
n
2b
)
N
b
; (23)
where a
1
and a
2
are given by the following, with constants j
1
and j
2
,
a
1
= j
1
u
n
1
=[u[; a
2
= j
2
u
n
2
=[u[: (24)
Fig. 1. Quadrilateral element and local coordinates.
T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250 239
The nite element equation for Eq. (11) in each element is expressed as:
G
ab
~ u
ib
= G
ab
u
n
ib
F
n
5ia
Dt; (25)
where
F
n
5ia
= A
abcj
u
n
jb
u
n
ic

1
q
l D
ab
u
n
ib
D
i
abj
u
n
jb

2
3
D
j
abi
u
n
ib
_ _
Q
ab
t
n
ib
_ _
;
G
ab
=
_
W
a
N
b
dS; A
abcj
=
_
W
a
N
b
oN
c
ox
j
dS; D
ab
=
_
oW
a
ox
j
oN
b
ox
j
dS;
D
i
abj
=
_
oW
a
ox
j
oN
b
ox
i
dS; Q
ab
=
_
W
a
N
b
dC; t
n
ib
= c
j
s
n
ijb
:
The void fraction a
n1
and the pressure p
n1
are obtained from Eqs. (10) and (20), respectively.
The other variables are calculated by the following equations, which are derived by assembling
the nite element equations for each element over the whole domain:
Mf
n1
= Mf
n
F
n
1
Dt; (26)
Mr
n1
= Mr
n
F
n
2
Dt; (27)
Mu
n1
i
= M~u
i
F
n
3i
; (28)
K/ = F
n
4
; (29)
G~u
i
= Gu
n
i
F
n
5i
Dt; (30)
where
M =

M
ab
; K =

K
ab
; G =

G
ab
;
F
n
1
=

F
n
1a
; F
n
2
=

F
n
2a
; F
n
3i
=

F
n
3ia
; F
n
4
=

F
n
4a
; F
n
5i
=

F
n
5ia
:
Here

denotes the assembly over the whole domain.

3.3. Numerical procedure
The numerical procedure is as follows:
1. Suppose the pressure at the time step n 1; p
n1
, to be equal to that at the step n; p
n
.
2. Calculate the bubble radius r
n1
from Eqs. (26) and (27) with use of p
n1
.
3. Calculate the void fraction a
n1
from Eq. (10) with use of r
n1
.
4. Calculate the predicted velocity of the liquid ~u from Eq. (30) with use of u
n
.
5. Calculate the function / from Eq. (29) with use of a
n1
and ~u.
6. Calculate p
n1
and the liquid velocity u
n1
from Eqs. (20) and (28), respectively, with use of /.
7. Calculate the bubble radius ~ r
n1
from Eqs. (26) and (27) with use of p
n1
.
8. When a condition r
n1
= ~ r
n1
is achieved in all elements, the ow properties at the time step
n 1 have been obtained by the above-mentioned calculations. If this condition is not attained,
the estimated pressure p
n1
is increased in the element if r
n1
> ~ r
n1
or decreased in the element
if r
n1
< ~ r
n1
. Then, the calculations from (1) to (7) are iterated until the condition r
n1
= ~r
n1
is achieved in all elements. The criterion of convergence is taken as
[(r
n1
~r
n1
)=r
n1
[ 60:1 10
2
.
The matrices in the nite element equations, such as M
ab
and C
abcj
, are calculated by Gaussian
quadrature, where 2 2 Gauss points are used. The matrices M
ab
and G
ab
are lumped into diag-
onal ones in order to save computer memory [15]. An LU decomposition method is used to solve
Eq. (29).
240 T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250
4. Numerical results and discussion
4.1. Calculation condition
The cavitating ows around a circular cylinder, which were experimentally observed by Sato
[12], are used for the present calculations. Two kinds of cylinders with diameters D of 5 and
10 mm are used for the ows of Re = 1:52 10
4
and 2:87 10
4
, respectively, where Re is the
Reynolds number dened as qu
0
D=l, and u
0
is the velocity of water upstream of the cylinder.
Fig. 2 shows the calculation domain and the nite elements. The width of the domain is set
10D, and the inlet and outlet boundaries are located 5D upstream and 13D downstream of the
cylinder, respectively. The number of elements is 3528, and the radial dimension of the elements
on the cylinder surface is 0.005D. The dimensionless time increment u
0
Dt=D is 2:5 10
4
, and the
constants j
1
and j
2
in Eq. (24) are set to be 0.4.
The boundary condition is summarized in Table 1. It is parallel to that used by Kakuda
and Tosaka [14] for their calculations of the water ow around a circular cylinder. At the inlet
Fig. 2. Calculation domain and nite elements.
Table 1
Boundary condition
Inlet boundary Uniform ow u
1
=u
0
, u
2
=0, r =r
0
, @//@c =0
Outlet boundary Traction free c
j
(d
ij
p ) s
ij
) =0, /=0
Cylinder surface No slip u
1
=u
2
=0, @//@c =0
Channel lateral wall Full slip u
2
=0, @//@c =0
T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250 241
boundary, an uniform ow is postulated in due consideration of the experimental condition. At
the outlet, the uid traction is assumed zero, as mentioned in a previous chapter. A no slip con-
dition is prescribed on the cylinder surface, whereas a full slip condition is assumed on the lateral
boundaries of the calculation domain. The distributions of the number density and size of bubble
nuclei in the experiment are not claried, but it is assumed that the initial bubble radius r
0
is
30 10
6
m and that the number density of bubbles n
b
is 4:5 10
10
in this calculation.
In order to examine the eect of the location of the computational domain's boundaries on the
numerical results, the calculation using a broader domain was also performed, where the width of
the domain is 15D and the outlet boundary is 20D downstream of the cylinder. The numerical
results, such as the void fraction distributions, were almost the same as those obtained by using
the domain shown in Fig. 2. This suggests that the domain in Fig. 2 is appropriate for the present
computation.
4.2. Results for non-cavitating conditions
Before cavitating ows were calculated, the numerical accuracy of the present nite element
method was evaluated under non-cavitating conditions. Fig. 3 shows the distributions of the
water velocity u for Re = 1:52 10
4
and 2:87 10
4
at a time when the ows are suciently deve-
loped under the non-cavitating condition. The ows separated from the cylinder surface generate
vortices behind the cylinder. The vortices ow downstream of the cylinder. The pressure distribu-
tions are also indicated in Fig. 3 by the contour lines of the pressure coecient C
p
. The vortices
yield low-pressure regions at their centers. The Strouhal number fD=u
0
estimated from the vortex
shedding frequency f is 0.24 for both Reynolds numbers, which is slightly larger than the mea-
sured one (.0.2).
Fig. 3. Distributions of velocity and pressure in water under non-cavitating conditions (interval between contour lines of
C
p
is 0.2). (a) Re =1.52 10
4
, (b) Re =2.87 10
4
.
242 T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250
The generation and shedding of the vortices make the ow around the cylinder unsteady, so the
drag coecient C
D
and the lift coecient C
L
of the cylinder change as functions of time t as shown
in Fig. 4. The abscissa is the dimensionless time t
+
(= u
0
t=D). The time when the fully developed
ow is obtained is set to be t
+
= 0. The frequency of C
L
coincides with that of the vortex shedding
for both Reynolds numbers.
Fig. 5 shows the relationship between the time-averaged value of C
D
and Re. The present re-
sults at Re = 1:52 10
4
and 2:87 10
4
are slightly larger than the measured ones. But, they can
be considered to be satisfactory when compared to the results obtained with a nite dierence
method [16] and a nite element method [14]. This indicates that the value for j
1
and j
2
; 0.4, used
in the present upwind scheme is appropriate.
The distributions of the time-averaged values of C
p
on the cylinder surface at Re = 1:52 10
4
and 2:87 10
4
are indicated in Fig. 6, where h is the azimuthal angle measured from the front
stagnation point of the cylinder. The relation C
p
= 1 is satised at h = 0; and C
p
decreases mo-
notonously with an increment in h: C
p
reaches a minimum at h =74 and remains almost unal-
tered in range of h P90 due to the ow separation for both Reynolds numbers. The change
in C
p
against h agrees approximately with the measured result (Re = 1:33 10
4
) indicated by
the broken line in Fig. 6, though the calculated values are slightly lower than the measured ones
except near the front stagnation point.
4.3. Results for cavitating conditions
When the pressure upstream of the cylinder, p
0
; and hence the cavitation number, r; are
decreased at a constant Reynolds number, Re, a region of high void fraction, a; that is a cavity,
Fig. 4. C
D
and C
L
under non-cavitating conditions.
T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250 243
appears locally. The ow oscillates with almost a constant period under such cavitating condi-
tions.
Fig. 7 shows the distributions of the void fraction a at four times in the oscillation period, for
Re = 1:52 10
4
and r = 3:6. The ow eld at t
+
= 0 corresponds to the fully developed one under
non-cavitating conditions. In this study, the cavity is dened as a region where a is more than 0.01
and indicated by the contour lines of a. The interval between the contours is 0.02. Cavities appear
on the cylinder surface as shown in Fig. 7(a). In Fig. 7(b), one of them grows on the cylinder sur-
face, and the others move away from the cylinder while their a values decrease. A cavity is ob-
served just behind the cylinder as shown in Fig. 7(c). Part of it grows abruptly into a very
large-scale cavity (darkened area) as seen in Fig. 7(d), where the maximum value of a is 0.81.
Fig. 8 shows the distributions of water velocity at each of the four times shown in Fig. 7. The
ows separated from the cylinder surface generate vortices behind the cylinder. The cavitation re-
gions shown in Fig. 7 almost coincide with the regions in which the vortices occur. This is because
Fig. 6. Distribution of C
p
on cylinder surface under non-cavitating conditions.
Fig. 5. Relationship between time-averaged C
D
and Re under non-cavitating conditions.
244 T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250
the bubble volume expands in the center of the vortex, where the pressure reaches a minimum
value. It is found that the aforementioned advection of the cavity is caused by the motion of
the vortices. The present numerical result that the appearance of the cavitation relates closely
to the vortex motion of the water in the sheared layer is in good agreement with experimental ob-
servations [12].
The time-averaged distribution of a for the above-mentioned cavitating ow
(Re = 1:52 10
4
; r = 3:6) is shown in Fig. 9(a), where only the upper half region around the cyl-
inder is displayed utilizing the symmetrical distribution. A cavity region of a P0.01 appears near
the separation point on the cylinder surface and behind the cylinder. The maximum value of a is
0.067.
Fig. 9(b) shows the distribution of cavitation bubbles observed by Sato [12] using a CCD video
camera (30 frames/s) synchronized with a stroboscopic light (ash period=4 ls), where Re is the
same as in Fig. 9(a) and 3.06 6r 63.61. The value of N is the total number of pictures taken by
the camera, and n denotes the number of pictures in which the bubbles exist. Bubbles are observed
in the cavitation region calculated in Fig. 9(a). They are also observed downstream of this region,
suggesting that the observed cavitation region is larger than the calculated one. This discrepancy
may be due to the fact that the value of r in the calculation, r = 3:6, corresponds to the upper
boundary of r for the observation (3.06 6r 63.61), and also because the distributions of the ini-
tial radius, r
0
, and number density, n
b
, of the bubble are disregarded. It should also be mentioned
that the bubble deformation, fragmentation and coalescence occur behind the cylinder in the Sa-
to's experiment. Thus, it is necessary to take account of such bubble behaviour in the recirculation
zone in order to improve the computational accuracy.
Fig. 7. Distribution of a (Re =1.52 10
4
, r=3.6, interval between contour lines is 0.02).
Fig. 8. Velocity distribution in water (Re =1.52 10
4
, r=3.6).
T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250 245
Fig. 10 shows the distributions of a at Re = 2:87 10
4
and r = 3:7. In Figs. 10(a) and (b),
cavities appear in the vicinity of the cylinder surface. A large-scale cavity with a high value of
a is observed behind the cylinder in Fig. 10(c). The maximum value of a is 0.72. In Fig. 10(d), this
cavity ows downstream with a rapid decrease in a.
The water velocity distributions for Fig. 10 are shown in Fig. 11. The cavitation regions in
Fig. 10 almost coincide with the areas in which vortices occur, just as in Figs. 7 and 8.
Fig. 12(a) shows the time-averaged distribution of a for the above-mentioned cavitating ow
(Re = 2:87 10
4
; r = 3:7). A cavity region calculated behind the cylinder almost coincides with
Fig. 10. Distribution of a (Re =2.87 10
4
, r=3.7, interval between contour lines is 0.02).
Fig. 9. Distribution of time-averaged a (Re =1.52 10
4
). (a) Present calculation (r =3.6), (b) Experimental observation
(3.06 6r 63.61).
246 T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250
the observed region of 2 6 n 6 6 shown in Fig. 12(b), where the observation was conducted at
Re = 2:87 10
4
and 3:62 6 r 6 4:11.
When the value of r is decreased from 3.7 to 3.4 at the same Reynolds number as in Fig. 12, the
time-averaged value of a is as shown in Fig. 13(a). In comparison with Fig. 12(a), the cavitation
region expands and the value of a increases. The maximum value of a is 0.089. This cavitation
region behind the cylinder is in good agreement with the region where the value of n is quite large
(11 6 n 6 25) shown in Fig. 13(b).
Fig. 11. Velocity distribution in water (Re =2.87 10
4
, r=3.7).
Fig. 12. Distribution of time-averaged a (Re =2.87 10
4
). (a) Present calculation (r =3.7), (b) Experimental observa-
tion (3.62 6r64.11).
T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250 247
5. Conclusions
A nite element method for calculating cavitating ow is proposed. The calculation domain is
divided into quadrilateral elements. The pressure is dened at the center of each element and as-
sumed to be constant within the element. The other variables, such as the velocity and the void
fraction, are dened on the nodes. An upwind scheme, based on the PetrovGalerkin method
using exponential weighting function, is employed to eliminate the numerical instability due to
the advection term. The solution algorithm uses a fractional step method, and the mass matrices
are lumped into diagonal ones to save computer memory.
The present nite element method is applied to the ow analyses around a circular cylinder.
The cavitation occurrence relates closely to the vortex motion of the water in the sheared layer
in accordance with experimental observations, and the cavitation regions almost coincide with
the regions where cavitation bubbles are observed frequently in the experiment. This indicates
that the present method is indeed applicable to cavitating ow analysis. Especially, the method
is usefully employed for the analyses in hydraulic machinery with complicated geometry. Because
it can represent precisely the geometry with the use of unstructured computational grids. But, it is
necessary to take account of the bubble deformation, fragmentation, coalescence and slip relative
to the liquid in order to improve the computational accuracy.
Fig. 13. Distribution of time-averaged a (Re =2.87 10
4
). (a) Present calculation (r =3.4), (b) Experimental observa-
tion (2.72 6r63.62).
248 T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250
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Nomenclature
C boundary of S
C
D
drag coecient of circular cylinder = F
D
=(qu
2
0
D=2)
C
L
lift coecient of circular cylinder = F
L
=(qu
2
0
D=2)
C
p
pressure coecient = (p p
0
)=(qu
2
0
=2)
D diameter of circular cylinder
F
D
drag force acting on circular cylinder
F
L
lift force acting on circular cylinder
N
b
shape function
n
b
number density of bubbles
p pressure
p
v
saturated vapor pressure
r radius of bubble
Re Reynolds number = qu
0
D=l
S calculation domain
t time
t
+
dimensionless time = u
0
t=D
u velocity of liquid-phase
x orthogonal coordinates
a void fraction
h azimuthal angle from front stagnation point of circular cylinder
l viscosity of liquid-phase
n local coordinates
q density of liquid-phase
r cavitation number = (p
0
p
v
)=(qu
2
0
=2)
/ function
Subscripts
0 upstream boundary
i, j component in direction of x
i
or x
j
Superscript
n time step
T. Uchiyama / Appl. Math. Modelling 22 (1998) 235250 249
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