A study on practical method to estimate drag of super-cavitating underwater vehicles

Abstract

In this paper, a simple practical method to estimate the drag of Super-Cavitating Underwater Vehicles (SCUV) is proposed that can obtain the drag with only principal dimensions in an initial design stage. SCUV is divided into cavitator, forebody, afterbody, base, and control fin and the drag of each part is estimated. The formulas for the drag coefficient are proposed for the disk and cone type cavitators and wedges used as control fins. The formulas are a function of cavitation number, cone or wedge angle, and Reynolds number. This method can confirm the drag characteristics of SCUV that the drag hump appears according to the coverage of the body by the cavity and the cavitator drag remains only when the entire body is covered by cavity. Applying this method to SCUV of various shapes, it is confirmed that the effects of cavitating and non-cavitating conditions, cavitator and body shape, and speed could be found.

Keywords

• Super cavitation
• Underwater vehicle
• Drag estimation
• Cavitator
• Cone
• Wedge