The Role Of "Nuclei" In Tip Vortex Cavitation Inception

An analysis of the recently obtained 01 values for tip vortex cavitation inception from an elliptical planform hydrofoil is presented. This includes the estimation of critical a values for nuclei supply from the facility and separated regions on the foil. When measured 0i values are compared to these critical a values, certain obvious trends are noted. These have been used to estimate the dominant nuclei size at inception and are found to be surprisingly small. Thus, it is found that their role should be carefully examined in analyzing present inception data.