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Improving the hydrodynamic performance of the SUBOFF bare hull model: a CFD approach

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Abstract

The main aims of this study are to investigate the hydrodynamic performance of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), calculate its hydrodynamic coefficients, and consider the flow characteristics of underwater bodies. In addition, three important parts of the SUBOFF bare hull, namely the main body, nose, and tail, are modified and redesigned to improve its hydrodynamic performance. A three-dimensional (3D) simulation is carried out using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. To simulate turbulence, the k–ω shear stress transport (SST) model is employed, due to its good prediction capability at reasonable computational cost. Considering the effects of the length-to-diameter ratio (LTDR) and the nose and tail shapes on the hydrodynamic coefficients, it is concluded that a hull shape with bullet nose and sharp tail with LTDR equal to 7.14 performs better than the SUBOFF model. The final proposed model shows lower drag by about 14.9% at u = 1.5 m·s−1. Moreover, it produces 8 times more lift than the SUBOFF model at u = 6.1 m·s−1. These effects are due to the attachment of the fluid flow at the tail area of the hull, which weakens the wake region.

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Abbreviations

F :

Body force

D :

Diameter

y + :

Dimensionless wall distance

C D :

Drag coefficient

ρ :

Fluid density

g i :

Gravitational acceleration

δ ij :

Kronecker delta

L :

Length

LTDR:

Length-to-diameter ratio

C L :

Lift coefficient

L m :

Main body length

L n :

Nose length

C M :

Pitching moment coefficient

P :

Pressure

C P :

Pressure coefficient

Re :

Reynolds number

τ ij :

Reynolds stress tensor

ω :

Specific rate of dissipation

L t :

Tail length

k :

Turbulent kinetic energy

u :

Velocity

μ :

Viscosity

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imam Khomeini University of Maritime Sciences, Nowshahr, Iran

    Kambiz Divsalar

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Divsalar, K. Improving the hydrodynamic performance of the SUBOFF bare hull model: a CFD approach. Acta Mech. Sin. 36, 44–56 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-019-00913-7

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