Propulsion System Design for an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV)

Abstract

Unmanned underwater vehicles are small submersible platforms, commonly used by developed nations for military and commercial purposes. The powering of UUV is one of the most important factors as it consumes a high proportion of the weight and space available in a submersible platform. Approximately, 35% of weight and 50% of the total volume is devoted to energy storage and powering of propulsion system. The emphasis of this research is to find propeller with suitable diameter, no of blades at a location so to minimize the powering requirements of DARPA SUBOFF UUV. Initially, coefficients of drag and resistance was calculated using ITTC guidelines. Wake survey of the tail/stern of DARPA SUBOFF UUV was carried out using COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS 5.6. Utilizing this analysis 07 x different locations were marked for further analysis with 02 x different propeller diameters and 02 x different propeller blade configurations. The analysis of these 28 x combinations resulted in determination of a plane where minimum powering requirement has arrived with suitable propeller diameter and optimum number of blades.