Numerical simulation of cavitation effects behind obstacles and in an automotive fuel jet pump

By means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) this study examines cavitation effects behind obstacles and within an automotive fuel jet pump. Especially with regard to gasoline such effects are serious issues for applications of jet pumps in automotive fuel systems. The cavitation phenomena are captured by a model based on a void region approach within the volume-of-fluid method (VOF) including the k--model of turbulence. A first-order and a second-order scheme are compared, and the potential of the numerical method is evaluated by considering benchmark cases.