From a compressible fluid model to new mass conserving cavitation algorithms

This study investigates two algorithms proposed to solve a new cavitation model. This new cavitation model is based on a compressible Reynolds equation in which the density–pressure relation is obtained from a barotropic–isentropic assumption. It can be viewed as an approximation of the Jakobson–Floberg–Olsson/Elrod Adams cavitation model. Two algorithms are proposed to solve it. The first one is explicit and needs an important number of nodes. The second is implicit and can be used for steady-state and unsteady problems. Its implementation is easy and needs only minor modifications for a computer code in which cavitation is ignored. It can also be used to compute the solution of the usual J.F.O./E.A. model. Faster convergence is obtained using a relaxation parameter.