The cavitation phenomenon, also known as cold boiling, occurs at distinct high-velocity, high-pressure marine conditions that results vapour bubbles along structural surfaces. The vapour bubbles lead to erosion and hence induce significant damage to ship propellers and rudders. The VENTuRE project is proud to provide knowledge-exchange support for the MarSA-funded CAVEAT (CAVitation Experimentation Acquisition Technology) project, which aims to develop a force-measurement device for hydrofoils in cavitation tunnels.
The CAVEAT device shall greatly improve the design-process of marine rudders and propellers, providing a degree of accuracy that is absent at present. The state-of-the-art results obtained from these experiments shall be utilised to validate CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations. The ultimate market clients of CAVEAT shall be companies within the maritime industry that benefit from lower operational costs due to the implementation of high-efficiency propellers and high-lifecycle rudders.
The development of CAVEAT is a joint collaboration between the University of Malta (UM) and the University of Genoa (UniGe). This collaboration was formed through a Horizon 2020 Twinning project called VENTuRE, which is aimed at promoting knowledge transfer between four institutions (UM, UniGe, University of Strathclyde (USTRATH) and Naval Architectural Services Ltd. (NAS)) who are leaders in maritime engineering research and design.