Ashish Karn

A comparative study of behaviors of ventilated supercavities between experimental models with different mounting configurations

Small-scale water tunnel experiments of the phenomenon of supercavitation can be carried out broadly using two different kinds of experimental models–in the first model (forward facing model, or FFM), the incoming flow first interacts with the cavitator at front, which is connected to the strut through a ventilation pipe. The second model could have the strut and the ventilation pipe preceding the cavitator (backward facing model, or BFM). This is the continuation of a water tunnel study of the effects of unsteady flows on axisymmetric supercavities. In this study, the unwanted effect of test model configuration on supercavity shape in periodic flows was explored through a comparison of FFM and BFM models. In our experiments, it was found that periodic gust flows have only a minimal effect on the maximum diameter and the cavity length can be shortened above a certain vertical velocity of periodic flows. These findings appear to be robust regardless of the model configuration.

Bubble size characteristics in the wake of ventilated hydrofoils with two aeration configurations

Aerating hydroturbines have recently been proposed as an effective way to mitigate the problem of low dissolved oxygen in the discharge of hydroelectric power plants. The design of such a hydroturbine requires a precise understanding of the dependence of the generated bubble size distribution upon the operating conditions (viz. liquid velocity, air ventilation rate, hydrofoil configuration, etc.) and the consequent rise in dissolved oxygen in the downstream water. The purpose of the current research is to investigate the effect of location of air injection on the resulting bubble size distribution, thus leading to a quantitative analysis of aeration statistics and capabilities for two turbine blade hydrofoil designs. The two blade designs differed in their location of air injection. Extensive sets of experiments were conducted by varying the liquid velocity, aeration rate and the hydrofoil angle of attack, to characterize the resulting bubble size distribution. Using a shadow imaging technique to capture the bubble images in the wake and an in-house developed image analysis algorithm, it was found that the hydrofoil with leading edge ventilation produced smaller size bubbles as compared to the hydrofoil being ventilated at the trailing edge.

Measurements in the wake of a ventilated hydrofoil: A step towards improved turbine aeration techniques

The purpose of this study is to develop the necessary algorithms to determine the bubble size distribution and velocity in the wake of a ventilated or cavitating hydrofoil utilizing background illumination. A simplified experiment was carried out to validate the automatic bubble detection algorithm at the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) of the University of Minnesota. The experiment was conducted in the SAFL high-speed water tunnel. First, particle shadow velocimetry (PSV) images of a bubbly flow were collected. Bubbles were identified in the images using an edge detection method based on the Canny algorithm. The utilized algorithm was designed to detect partly overlapping bubbles and reconstruct missing parts. After all images were analyzed, the bubble velocity was determined by applying a tracking algorithm. This study has shown that the algorithm enables reliable analysis of irregularly shaped bubbles even when bubbles are highly overlapped in the wake of the ventilated hydrofoil. It is expected that this technique can be used to determine the bubble velocity field as well as the bubble size distributions.

Insights into Ventilation Demand Estimation for High-Speed Supercavitating Underwater Vehicles

The difference between the typical peak speeds of an aerial and an underwater vehicle is enormous. Evidently, the reason behind this huge disparity lies in the tremendous skin friction drag experienced by an underwater vehicle. However, this difference can be bridged if the underwater vehicles were somehow engulfed by elongated gas/vapor bubbles or cavities as these vehicles travel underwater. Such huge cavities or ‘supercavities’ can be generated via two different approaches—cavitation or ventilation. Among the two, the generation of a supercavity through ventilation is more interesting, since it can be accomplished at much lower speeds. For the operation of such underwater vehicles in the ventilation mode, it is imperative to determine the ventilation demand, or the amount of gas to be carried on board. The present study reports some interesting insights into the factors that determine the estimation of this ventilation demand. Two most important factors governing the estimation of ventilation demand are the ventilation requirement for the formation and sustenance of a supercavity. These two factors, in turn, are dependent upon the operational conditions of a vehicle, as well as unsteady state conditions prevailing under the ocean. The current work explores the dependence of the formation and sustenance air entrainment rates of a supercavity at different operational conditions of the supercavitating vehicle.

Gas transfer in a bubbly wake flow

The present work reports simultaneous bubble size and gas transfer measurements in a bubbly wake flow of a hydrofoil, designed to be similar to a hydroturbine blade. Bubble size was measured by a shadow imaging technique and found to have a Sauter mean diameter of 0.9 mm for a reference case. A lower gas flow rate, greater liquid velocities, and a larger angle of attack all resulted in an increased number of small size bubbles and a reduced weighted mean bubble size. Bubble-water gas transfer is measured by the disturbed equilibrium technique. The gas transfer model of Azbel (1981) is utilized to characterize the liquid film coefficient for gas transfer, with one scaling coefficient to reflect the fact that characteristic turbulent velocity is replaced by cross-sectional mean velocity. The coefficient was found to stay constant at a particular hydrofoil configuration while it varied within a narrow range of 0.52-0.60 for different gas/water flow conditions.

Closure mechanisms of ventilated supercavities under steady and unsteady flows

The present work reports some interesting experimental results for ventilated supercavitation in steady and unsteady flows. First, a variety of closure modes obtained as a result of systematic variation in Froude number and air entrainment, are reported. The closure mechanisms were found to differ from the standard criterion reported in the literature. Further, the occurrence of a variety of stable and unstable closure mechanisms were discovered that have not been reported in the literature. Next, a hypothesis is presented to explain the cause behind these different closure mechanisms. The proposed hypothesis is then validated by synchronized high-speed imaging and pressure measurements inside and outside of the supercavity. These measurements show that the supercavity closure is a function of instantaneous cavitation number under unsteady flow conditions. (Research sponsored by Office of Naval Research, USA)