CFD simulation of cooperative AUV motion

Cooperative AUV performance and efficiency is directly related to its power efficiency. The power consumption for this type of underwater vehicle is influenced by its motion requirement since most of the power is spent for thruster propulsion. Drag force is known as the main parameter in resisting the body motion. In the present study, the behavior of this force is studied by using computational fluid dynamic approach (CFD). Two position arrangement of cooperative AUV was chosen to study the drag variation. First, the distance effect between two AUV was investigated to represent the basic position arrangement of cooperative AUV. Second, the effect of different position arrangement was also investigated. The comparison between distance and position arrangement is discussed in this paper. Present study elucidates that the distance behind the leading AUV does not give much effect to the drag force, but the position arrangement indicated significant influence.