Research on Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Blended Wing Body Underwater Glider with Rudder

Abstract

In order to improve the maneuverability and stability of the Blended Wing Body (BWB) underwater glider, the trailing edge rudder is integrated into its shape design in this paper. Through the numerical simulation of CFD, the variation laws of the hydraulic parameters such as lift, drag, lift-to-drag ratio with the angle of attack and rudder angle are given. Compared with the traditional underwater glider, the BWB underwater glider not only has high loading capacity, but also has a maximum lift-to-drag ratio three times that of the former, resulting in higher energy efficiency. At the same time, by adding trailing edge rudders, the maneuverability of the BWB underwater glider is improved, and the lift-to-drag ratio under the same large rudder angle is increased by more than 30% compared with the variable-wing underwater glider. Finally, through the analysis of the numerical results and the cloud image, the difference interaction extent between the rudder and the body of the BWB underwater glider and the traditional torpedo or AUV is illustrated.

Keywords

• blended wing body
• underwater glider
• cfd
• rudder
• numerical simulation
• lift-to-drag ratio