Linearized Theory of Supercavitating Hydrofoils in Subsonic Liquid Flow

In order to clarify the compressibility effect, the perturbed flow field of the supercavitating hydrofoil in subsonic region is examined by a linearized technique and, as a result, the general corresponding rule of the compressible flow to the incompressible one is proposed to obtain the characteristics of the supercavitating hydrofoil. The main contents are summarized as follows: (i) Basic relations between velocity, pressure, and sound speed are shown in subsonic liquid flow within the framework of linearization. (ii) The correspondence of the steady, characteristics of the two and three dimensional supercavitating hydrofoils in subsonic liquid flow to ones in incompressible flow is clarified. Hence we can readily calculate the characteristics by simple correction to ones in incompressible flow. (iii) Numerical calculations are made to show the essential differences of the compressibility effect between liquid and gas flow, and also the interrelated effect between cavitation number and Mach number on the characteristics of the supercavitating hydrofoils.