Cavitation Nuclei and Cavitation Inception of Marine Propellers : State of the Art at the Dawn of the 21st Century

Abstract

The important role of nuclei on cavitation inception and cavitation development is now well known. Several recent studies have allowed a precise correlation between cavitation inception for different types of cavitation on marine propellers and nuclei distributions(20th ITTC report). In a standard cavitation facility the nuclei distribution will depend on the hydrodynamic operating conditions, and can change during whole cavitation tests. Then, to be able to transpose the model results to full-scale, it is necessary to determine precisely the nuclei distribution corresponding to each cavitation operating point. An illustration is given by analyzing the influence of the operating conditions on a complete cavitation inception <<bucket>>. Moreover, as nuclei govern the whole cavitation process, nuclei measurements are also conducted at sea. The main purpose of all these studies is the accurate prediction of full-scale cavitation behavior from precise transposition laws. This is possible only when nuclei distributions are determined.