Numerical simulation of cavitating turbulent flow through a Francis turbine

The unsteady cavitating turbulent flow in a Francis turbine is simulated based on governing equations of the mixture model for cavity-liquid two-phase flows with the RNG k-epsilon turbulence model in the present paper. An improved mass transfer expression in the mixture model is obtained based on evaporation and condensation mechanics with considering the effects of the non-dissolved gas, the turbulence, the tension of interface at cavity and the effect of phase change rate and so on. The governing equations of the mixture model for the unsteady cavitating-liquid flow is solved by a direct coupling method numerically with the finite volume method (FVM) using the unstructured tetrahedron grid and the structured hexahedral grid system. This direct coupling simulation was successfully applied to simulate the cavitating two-phase turbulent flow through a Francis turbine. The simulated external results agreed well with the experimental results.