Shape of Cavities in Supercavitating Flows, Marshall P. Tulin, Hydronautics Technical Report 121-5, April 1965 (0159)
Recent interest supercavitating flows seems due in part to the subject's practical importance in connection with supercavitating and ventilated propellers, turbines, and hydrofoils; in part to the traditional mathematical interest in free streamline flows -- as boundary value problems; and perhaps in part to the stimulation afforded by the observation of actual supercavitating flows as created in experimental water channels. Indeed, "cavity-watching" can be a rewarding past-time, and no better way to become familiar with cavity flows can be imagined. Sometimes interesting phenomena which are not yet well understood may be observed, and occasionally one is moved to ask quite general questions about the shape of cavities in supercavitating flows. The latter forms the subject of this paper. Some of the most interesting cavities in nature are unsteady and three-dimensional. Here, however, we discuss only certain questions about steady, planar flows. Perhaps the most interesting new result given here concerns the effect of a transverse gravity field on the Helmholtz flow (s = 0) past a small forebody experiencing drag alone.