Unsteady, three-dimensional multiphase CFD analysis of maneuvering high speed supercavitating vehicles

Unsteady, three-dimensional, multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analyses of several flows of direct relevance to high speed supercavitating vehicles (HSSVs) have been performed. In this paper, we present a brief overview of the CFD formulation employed, and five sets of results including: 1) prescribed motion 3-D maneuvers of a notional HSSV configuration with a propulsion plume, 2) large scale unsteady simulations of natural cavitation over a wedge configuration, 3) simulation of the "gas-on" transient for a ventilated conical cavitator, 4) simulation of the transition from the re-entrant jet to the "twin vortex" regimes behind a vented conical cavitator, and, 5) simulation of a tube launch followed by rocket engine start-up transient. Each of these analyses represents an element of the broad range of physics to be incorporated in a "complete" model of an HSSV system. These simulations were carried out using High Performance Computing (HPC) resources provided under the US Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program (DoD HPCMP) "Challenge" program, and details of the computational requirements and resources employed in these analyses are discussed.