Reducing the drag of underwater vehicle in the shape of a small boat by using piezoelectric transducers

Abstract

Reducing the flow resistance of moving underwater vehicles can improve their performance and reduce the energy consumption. This paper presents a method to interfere the turbulent boundary layer for achieving the drag reduction by using piezoelectric transducers. The transducer produces ultrasonic traveling waves vibration near the hull surface. The working frequency and the maximum vibration amplitude of the transducers placed in different locations were obtained through the structural dynamic analysis. The fluid-solid coupling simulations were performed to explore the reduction drag performance. The simulation results show that better drag reduction performance can be obtained when the angle between the vibration direction of the piezoelectric transducer and the flow direction is 67.62°. The method of using piezoelectric transducer vibration for drag reduction is proved to be feasible. The present work provides a valuable reference for the study of drag reduction of underwater vehicles.