Reduced-order modeling of three-dimensional unsteady partial cavity flows

An efficient reduced-order modeling to analyze three-dimensional unsteady partial cavity flows is proposed. The proposed approach is based on the boundary element method along with the potential flow assumption. To this end, a novel non-iterative method based on the flow eigenmodes of three-dimensional partial cavity flows is applied. Eigenanalysis and reduced-order modeling for unsteady flows over a three-dimensional hydrofoil with various sections are performed. The results obtained from the present analysis are compared with those reported in the literature to verify the strength of the proposed approach. In order to examine the performance of the introduced algorithm for unsteady cavitating flows, various simulations for several reduced frequencies, hydrofoil geometries and different cavitation numbers are also investigated. Comparison between the obtained results using the novel and conventional methods indicates that the present algorithm works very well with sufficient accuracy. Moreover, it is shown that the proposed method is computationally more efficient than the conventional ones for unsteady sheet cavitation analysis on three-dimensional hydrofoils.