An improved progressive preconditioning method for steady non‐cavitating and sheet‐cavitating flows

An improved progressive preconditioning method for analyzing steady inviscid and laminar flows around fully wetted and sheet‐cavitating hydrofoils is presented. The preconditioning matrix is adapted automatically from the pressure and/or velocity flow‐field by a power‐law relation. The cavitating calculations are based on a single fluid approach. In this approach, the liquid/vapour mixture is treated as a homogeneous fluid whose density is controlled by a barotropic state law. This physical model is integrated with a numerical resolution derived from the cell‐centered Jameson's finite volume algorithm. The stabilization is achieved via the second‐and fourth‐order artificial dissipation scheme. Explicit four‐step Runge–Kutta time integration is applied to achieve the steady‐state condition. Results presented in the paper focus on the pressure distribution on hydrofoils wall, velocity profiles, lift and drag forces, length of sheet cavitation, and effect of the power‐law preconditioning method on convergence speed. The results show satisfactory agreement with numerical and experimental works of others. The scheme has a progressive effect on the convergence speed. The results indicate that using the power‐law preconditioner improves the convergence rate, significantly. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.