Numerical computation and analysis of high-speed autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) moving in head sea based on dynamic mesh

Abstract

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) navigating on the sea surface are usually required to complete the communication tasks in complex sea conditions. The movement forms and flow field characteristics of a multi-moving state AUV navigating in head sea at high speed were studied. The mathematical model on longitudinal motion of the high-speed AUV in head sea was established with considering the hydrodynamic lift based on strip theory, which was solved to get the heave and pitch of the AUV by Gaussian elimination method. Based on this, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used to establish the mathematical model of the unsteady viscous flow around the AUV with considering free surface effort by using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, shear-stress transport (SST) k-w model and volume of fluid (VOF) model. The three-dimensional numerical wave in the computational field was realized through defining the unsteady inlet boundary condition. The motion forms of the AUV navigating in head sea at high speed were carried out by the program source code of user-defined function (UDF) based on dynamic mesh. The hydrodynamic parameters of the AUV such as drag, lift, pitch torque, velocity, pressure, and wave profile were got, which reflect well the real ambient flow field of the AUV navigating in head sea at high speed. The computational wave profile agrees well with the experimental phenomenon of a wave-piercing surface vehicle. The force law of the AUV under the impacts of waves was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, which provides an effective theoretical guidance and technical support for the dynamics research and shape design of the AUV in real complex environment.