On the Study of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles by Computational Fluid-Dynamics
João Victor Nunes de Sousa, Antônio Gilson Barbosa de Lima, Francisco Alves Batista, Edna Cordeiro de Souza, Daniel César de Macedo Cavalcante, Paulo de Morais Pessôa, João Evangelista Franco do Carmo
Abstract
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV’s) are considered as advanced classes of vehicles, capable of performing pre-established missions without physical communication with the ground or human assistance. The research and development of this type of vehicles have been motivated, due to its excellent characteristics, ideal to the military, scientific and industrial sectors. Thus, the objective of this paper is to study fluid flow behavior past over AUV’s, without and with control surfaces (rudders), by Computational Fluid-Dynamics (CFD), aiming to obtain information about the impact of the operating depth and control surfaces on the vehicle's hydrodynamics, in order to help researchers and designers of this class of vehicles. Results of the drag coefficient, pressure, velocity and streamlines distribution around the vehicles are presented and analyzed.