A Note on Three-Dimensional Supercavitating Hydrofoils

The three-dimensional or finite-span effect on supercavitating hydrofoils has received much attention in recent years. Among others may be mentioned the work of Tsen and Gullbaud [1], 3 who give the numerical results of their own fully linearized supercavitating lifting-surface theory together with some experimental data, both their own and from other sources. The numerical results are somewhat different from what one might expect based on existing theories, and some of the experimental findings appear to differ from previously published results. The purpose of this brief note is to compare some of the theoretical and experimental results from reference [1] with other recent works both for fully linearized treatments (valid only for vanishing angles of attack), and nonlinear theories and other experimental data that have been used in the past.