A complete physical model of ventilated supercavitation is not well established. Efforts documented display the ability, with a finite volume, locally homogeneous approach, to simulate supercavitating flows and obtain good agreement with experiments. Several modeling requirements appear critical, especially in physical hysteretic conditions or configurations. The hysteresis presented is due to obstruction of the flow with a solid object. The modeling approach taken correctly captures a full hysteresis loop and the corresponding dimensionless ventilation rate to cavity pressure (C Q -) relationship. This correspondence supports the suggestion that the main mechanism of cavity gas entrainment is via shear layers attached to the cavity walls. With such validated solutions, additional insight into the flow within the cavity is gained. Nomenclature C 1 , C 2 turbulence model constants C Q dimensionless ventilation rate [q/(U 0 Dc 2 )] (q is volume flow rate) C prod, C dest mass transfer model parameter L c , D c cavity length and max. diameter Fr Froude Number [U O /(Dg) 1/2 ] k, turbulence model eddy viscosity and dissipation rate L t turbulent length scale P turbulence model production term k , turbulence model Schmidt Numbers for k and k gas volume fractions p preconditioning matrix m , m ,t mixture molecular, and eddy viscosity , k mixture and isolated liquid, gas, and vapor densities cavitation index [(p -p c )/(0.5 U 2 )]

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