Experimental Study on Artificial Supercavitation of the High Speed Torpedo

Ahn, Byoung-Kwon; Jung, So-Won; Kim, Ji-Hye; Jung, Young-Rae; Kim, Sun-Bum

doi:2015.18.3.300

J. KIMS Technol > Volume 18(3); 2015 > Article

Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology 2015;18(3):300-308.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.9766/KIMST.2015.18.3.300

Experimental Study on Artificial Supercavitation of the High Speed Torpedo

Byoung-Kwon Ahn, So-Won Jung, Ji-Hye Kim, Young-Rae Jung, Sun-Bum Kim

¹Department of Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering, Chungnam National University
²The 6th Research and Development Institute, Agency for Defense Development

고속 어뢰의 인공 초공동 특성에 대한 실험 연구

안병권, 정소원, 김지혜, 정영래, 김선범

¹충남대학교 선박해양공학과
²국방과학연구소 제6기술연구본부

Abstract

Recently supercavitating underwater torpedo moving at high speed (over 200 knots) has been interested for their practical advantage of the dramatic drag reduction. Cavitator located in front of the torpedo plays an important role to generate a natural supercavity and control the motion of the object. Supercavity can be created artificially by injection of compressed gas from the rear of the cavitator at a relatively low speed. In this paper, we investigated physical characteristics of artificial supercavities through cavitation tunnel experiments. One of the main focuses of the study was to measure pressure inside the cavity, and examined variation of the gravity effects appearing according to different amount of injected air. It was also found that a stable supercavity could be sustained at injection rates less than that required to form the stable supercavity because of hysteresis effect.

Key Words: Cavitator, Supercavitation, Natural Supercavitation, Artificial Supercavitation