THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD AND CFD STUDY OF THE BARE HULL FORM OF UNDERWATER VEHICLE AT NEAR SURFACE CONDITION

Abstract

Hull form selection, resistance and powering are important in designing underwater vehicle. An underwater vehicle bare hull form is based on the five parameters due to the interaction between the propeller and the hull. When they are running on the surface condition, there will be problems likely as surface vessel, but the main hull of the underwater vehicle is below the waterline with low freeboard. The underwater vehicles are operating with high speed at a high Froude Number. Therefore, the wave making component becomes important in surface resistance. The wave making resistance of the underwater vehicle model at surface condition is analyzed by using CFD tools. Friction component of resistance is calculated by using ITTC’57 correlation line. The flow around the ship’s hull is complicated, so that model experiments are still the most reliable data source on ship resistance determination. The bare hull form of underwater vehicle resistance is based on the model experiments and CFD results. The towing mechanism arrangement should be considered at model. Therefore, towing mechanism is designed for model testing. This paper discusses the towing method and result between model test and CFD. This paper also makes comparison of wave formation Towing tank test and CFD at various speeds. The model was tested with bare hull form of underwater vehicle in the Ship Model Towing Tank at Marine Hydrodynamics Centre, Myanmar Maritime University. CFD analysis is also carried out and the results are compared for surface condition. The three software packages XFLOW, XMESH and XPAN are used for CFD simulations. The comparison of results shows that the coefficient differences are less staggered based on the speed.