Influence of Cavitator Cone Angle on Supercavitation Flow of Projectile in Initial Stage of Transonic Water-Entry

To further understand the influence of cavitator on projectile’s navigation state, taking cavity formation and development of a projectile as the object during transonic water-entry process, the cavitation flows during transonic water-entry process by projectiles with different cavitator cone angles of 90°, 120°, 150° and 180° are simulated by using the commercial software Fluent combining with the user-defined function(UDF), the multiphase flow model (VOF implicit) and dynamic mesh, in which the compressibility of liquid is taken into account. And then the influences of the cone angle on the impact load and flow field characteristics during the projectile’s transonic water-entry process are discussed. The results show that the cone angle has significant influences on the distribution of flow field parameters and drag characteristics of projectiles: with the increase in the cone angle, the distance from the shock surface to the hysteresis point of cavitator and the angle of the shock wave decrease accordingly; in the initial stage of transonic water-entry, the impact load coefficient increases with the increase of the cone angle, and the impact peak arrives earlier with narrower peak pulse width. This study may provide a reference for the design of head shape of the supercavity projectile.