Study on the Impact of Tail Wing Profiles on the Resistance Characteristics of Amphibious Vehicles

Abstract

The resistance performance of amphibious vehicles can be improved by installing underwater tail hydrofoils. The research on the impact of different hydrofoil profiles on the resistance characteristics of amphibious vehicles can provide a reference for the vehicle’s design. For an amphibious vehicle model, five shapes of symmetrical hydrofoils, NACA0012, NACA0015, NACA0016, and asymmetric hydrofoils NACA23012, NACA66-209, were selected as the underwater tail wing of the vehicle body, respectively. Based on the RANS method and overset grid technology, the resistance performance of the vehicle body was numerically calculated, and the resistance variation in the amphibious vehicle equipped with different tail hydrofoils at 0.43 < Fr∇ < 1.3 speed was obtained. The basic shape of amphibious vehicle tail wings can be determined by comparing the effects of symmetrical hydrofoils and asymmetric hydrofoils on body resistance. The results show that the asymmetric hydrofoils have a better resistance reduction effect on amphibious vehicles than the symmetrical ones. Among them, an amphibious vehicle installing the asymmetric hydrofoil NACA66-209 as an underwater tail wing can reduce resistance by 44.3%. Chord length is an important factor affecting the resistance reduction performance of tail wings. When Fr∇ = 1.3, the asymmetric hydrofoil optimized based on chord length has a 21.2% higher resistance reduction effect on amphibious vehicles.