It is the purpose of this bulletin to present in usable form methods for estimating the cavitation speed of two-dimensional and certain three-dimensional flows about shapes of technical interest to naval architects.
In this sense, it is not a research paper (although some new methods are presented), but rather a distillation of research done over the past several decades into a form which can be applied. No attempt will be made to explain the development of the various recommended formulae since those who are interested in such details can consult the references which are cited. On the other hand, a very elementary description is given at the outset of the physical characteristics which have an important bearing on the determination of the minimum pressure attained on the surface of a body or section and hence on the speed at which the phenomenon of cavitation may be expected to ensue. It is pointed out that the onset of cavitation depends upon many things other than the ideal steady-state. pressure in the liquid as given by the estimates presented herein and hence the predictions made must be considered simply as estimates which are nonetheless of use in direct as well as in a comparative sense.
Treatment of the material is divided into three main categories, i.e., flows in two dimensions, axially symmetric bodies in axial- and cross-flows and certain three-dimensional flows. In the first two of these, results for existing forms are condensed and presented to show the importance of such shape parameters as thickness ratio, leading edge radius, slenderness ratio and the integrated effect of overall shape. This is followed by elucidation of a method for computing the pressure distribution about an arbitrary form (one which has not been previously computed) in terms of operations on the offsets of the body. The existence of computer programs for such calculations is announced. The scope of the last section on three-dimensional flows is limited because of the paucity of existing material and the general difficulty in carrying out calculations in this case. Simple superposition techniques are advanced for engineering analysis of juncture flows.