Hydrodynamic Design Optimization of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle based on Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), which are available for scientific, commercial and military purposes, are unmanned marine robots that perform pre-programmed tasks under deeply submerged conditions and large cruising speeds. Extensive use of AUVs in oceanographic applications necessitates the investigation into hydrodynamic hull resistance of the vehicles where it is vital in determination of the power requirements and range of the systems. In this paper, a design method using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for determining the hull resistance of an AUV is addressed. Hydrodynamic parameters of fully submerged bare hull are investigated in a series of simulations with ANSYS CFX™ commercial CFD code and the response surface being analyzed for specific performance indicators. Moreover, hydrodynamic design optimization of the AUV hull with using RSM to minimize the drag coefficient is carried out, for a given performance criteria and constraints. Results demonstrate that the shape optimization in conceptual design of AUVs is possible by using numerical simulations and RSM.