NUMERICAL COMPUTATION OF VISCOUS DRAG FOR AXISYMMETRIC UNDERWATER VEHICLES

Abstract

Simulation of flow past underwater vehicle hull form continues to grow rapidly in the field of marine hydrodynamics. With the advent of high speed computers, significant progress has been made in predicting flow characteristics around any given hull form. Although minimization of drag is one of the most important design criteria, not much effort has been given to determining viscous drag, an important parameter in the development of a new design. This paper presents finite volume method based on Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for computation of viscous drag. Computations are performed on bare submarine hull DREA and six axisymmetric bodies of revolution with a number of Length-Diameter (L/D) ratios ranging from 4 to 10. Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω model has been used to simulate turbulent flow past bodies. Finally, computed results are compared with experimental measurements and found satisfactory.