Low speed maneuvering of an Ogive model using fins and water jets

• Main Author: Yeoh, Jung Chin.
• Other Authors: Yu Ching Man, Simon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53778
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) also known as underwater drones are capable to operate underwater tasks such as discovering and terminating underwater mines without human occupant. The objective of this project is to improve maneuverability and efficiency of UUV by controlling the yaw, lateral force and drag acting on the ogive model with three different techniques which are fins, continuous water jets and pulsating water jets. A scaled down ogive model to represent UUV will be used in the experiments and effects of each technique on yaw, lateral force and drag force will be tested and collected using 3- components balance equipment. Apparatus such as water pump, jet system and pulsating will be redesigned and modified from existing one to improve the performance of the experiments, For fin angle experiment, the ogive model will be tested with different fin angle between 0° to 60° with 10° interval. For continuous and pulsating water jets experiments, the ogive model will be tested with different jet velocities of 1.03m/s, 1.33m/s, 1.97m/s, 2.47m/s. Different cruising velocities of the model will be tested by varying the water tunnel flow rate. Experiments showed that under same condition such as flow rate, jet velocity, and fin angle, magnitude of lateral force of pulsating water jet is the highest followed by continuous water jet and fin angle. Similarly, it is observed that yaw of pulsating water jet is the highest followed by continuous water jet and fin angle. As jet velocity increases, trust force increases. It is concluded that pulsating jet with velocity 2.47m/s and pulsating frequency of 1 Hz has the highest lateral force and yaw. Hence, with such conditions, it can make the fastest turn with smallest radius. Nevertheless, drag force is observed to be smallest in fin experiment and drag force observed in these three techniques tested are mainly affected by the cruising velocity as water tunnel flow rate increases, drag induced increases.