Significances of Hydrodynamic Coefficients for the AUV TUNA-SAND with a block-like shape

摘要

Hydrodynamic coefficients strongly affect the dynamic performance of an AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle). It is known that the significance of every hydrodynamic coefficient is different for a given AUV, and many of them have negligible effect on the dynamics so that they can be ignored. Hence, it is necessary to analyze the significance of various hydrodynamic coefficients to economize the time and cost before determining the values of hydrodynamic coefficients for a given AUV. The block-like shaped aUV TUNA-SAND (Terrain based Underwater Navigable AUV for Seafloor And Natural resources Development) was constructed in March 2007. In this study, the significances of its hydrodynamic coefficients are investigated by CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation. The validity of these simulation results have been verified by comparing with experimental results. Based on the simulation results, the significances of every hydrodynamic coefficient are determined by analyzing the relationships between hydrodynamic loads and motions for all six freedom degrees. The results indicate that the relative significance of every hydrodynamic coefficient of this vehicle is different from those of AUVs with typical streamlined shapes. This study offers a reference to determine which coefficients need to be investigated when constructing an AUV with block-like shapes.