A fine drag coefficient model for hull shape of underwater vehicles

Abstract

The increasingly diverse mission requirements result in challenges to the rapid design and functional diversification of underwater vehicles (UVs). The genealogical design of UVs shape is one of the key steps to deal with these challenges. In the present work, based on the hydrodynamic characteristics with different shape features of UVs, the hull shape genealogy including the spherical/spheroidal shape, slender axisymmetric shape, slender flat shape and round-dish shape was established according to the genealogy classification theory. Influence of the hull shape parameters and Reynolds numbers on hydrodynamics of the spherical/spheroidal shape, slender axisymmetric shape and slender flat shape for wide application in hull shape genealogy was investigated by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation method. The mathematical models of the drag coefficients of the hull shape genealogy with different shape parameters and Reynolds numbers were established by fitting the data obtained from CFD calculation. The accuracy of the established drag coefficient models was verified by the tank tests of “Petrel-L″ model developed by Tianjin University and SUBOFF model. Furthermore, the established drag coefficient models show higher accuracy than the traditional drag coefficient models, namely G&J model, VT model and MIT model, by comparing with the towing tank tests of SUBOFF model. The present research provides an important reference for realizing the rapid and efficient design of UVs with the same hydrodynamic shapes.