Investigation of the Impact of Ducted Propellers on AUV Hydrodynamic Performance Based on CFD

Abstract

Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with ducted propellers exhibit increased maneuverability. However, ducting also influences the AUV's dynamic characteristics. Accordingly, it is crucial to analyze the effect that ducted propellers exert on an AUV's hydrodynamic performance. This paper utilizes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to study this impact. Firstly, two AUV models with identical geometry except for the presence of ducted propellers were constructed using 3D software. Subsequently, two sets of overlapping grids for the CFD hydrodynamic analysis were created, each for one of the AUVs. Hydrodynamic coefficients for both models were obtained by calculating their translational and rotational motions, and differences between these coefficients were analyzed to evaluate the ducted propellers' effect. The computational results reveal that ducted propellers augment the inertial hydrodynamic forces in surge motion while reducing those in sway, heaven, pitch, and yaw motions. In addition, the presence of ducted propellers heightens the viscous hydrodynamic forces during translational motion and diminishes them during rotational motion. The ducted propeller further impacts the AUV's streamlined shape, thereby altering the AUV's inertial and viscous hydrodynamic characteristics. Therefore, when designing AUV with ducted propellers, it is critical to consider the effect of ducting on the AUV.

Keywords

• autonomous underwater vehicle(auv)
• hydrodynamic model
• ducted propeller
• computational fluid dynamics(cfd)