Experimental investigation of the effect of bow profiles on resistance of an underwater vehicle in free surface motion

Abstract

In this paper, towing tank experiments are conducted to study the behavior of flow on a model of the underwater vehicle with various shapes of bows, i.e. tango and standard bows in free surface motion tests. The total resistances for different Froude numbers are considered experimentally. The towing tank is equipped with a trolley that can operate in through 0.05–6 m/s speed with ±0.02 m/s accuracy. Furthermore, the study is done on hydrodynamic coefficients i.e. total, residual and friction resistance coefficients, and the results are compared. Finally, the study on flow of wave fields around bows is done and wave filed around two bows are compared. The Froude number interval is between 0.099 and 0.349. Blockage fraction for the model is fixed to 0.005 3. The results showed that the residual resistance of the standard bow in 0.19 to 0.3 Froude number is more than the tango bow in surface motion which causes more total resistance for the submarine. Finally, details of wave generated by the bow are depicted and the effects of flow pattern on resistance drag are discussed.

Keywords

underwater vehicle / free surface motion / bow profile / residual resistance / towing tank / flow assessment / Froude number