An Experimental and Numerical Study on Cavitation of Hull Appendages

In the present work a study on cavitation of hull appendages, such as stabilizer fins or rudders, is presented. The attention is focused on tip related cavitation and especially on tip vortex cavitation. Devices, such as end plates and tip fairing, commonly adopted to reduce this phenomenon are analyzed trough experiments and numerical calculations. Various solutions are compared underlining their advantages and shortcomings, considering the effect on cavitation inception and vortex intensity. With this aim, a model of control surface was fitted with different end plates and with a tip fairing and tested at various angles of attack. Experiments were carried out in the cavitation tunnel of the University of Genoa while CFD computations were performed by CETENA. Moreover a comparison between experiments and numerical results is presented showing the relation existing between the two different approaches. As a result a simplified technique to predict cavitation phenomenon by means of numerical simulations calibrated with experimental results is outlined.