Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation of Cavity Oscillation in a Diffuser with Swirling Flow

Abstract

The cavity oscillation with swirling flow in hydraulic power generating systems was studied by a simple experiment and numerical simulation. Several types of fluctuation were observed in the experiment, including the cavitation surge caused by the diffuser effect and the vortex precession by the swirling flow. Both cavitation surge and vortex precession were simulated by CFD. Detailed flow structure was examined through flow visualization and CFD.