Enhancing hydrodynamic efficiency in Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) utilizing adjoint method and proper...

Area of Science:

• Ocean Engineering
• Fluid Dynamics
• Robotics

Background:

• High-performing Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are crucial for offshore mineral exploitation and oceanographic research.
• Optimization of air and land vehicles using adjoint techniques is advanced, but AUV optimization lags.
• There is a need to enhance AUV hydrodynamic efficiency for better performance in marine environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To improve the hydrodynamic efficiency of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).
• To minimize drag forces on AUVs by applying the adjoint method specifically to the AUV's wing.
• To leverage Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) for enhanced flow field analysis.

Main Methods:

• Employed a gradient-based adjoint technique for wing geometry optimization.
• Utilized computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model for simulations.
• Applied Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) to analyze dominant flow modes.

Main Results:

• Achieved significant reductions in drag force across various speeds (0.5 m/s to 2 m/s).
• A 9% alteration in wing geometry led to a 9% drag reduction at 1 m/s (98.91 N to 90.17 N).
• At 2 m/s, drag reduced by 17% (386.34 N to 320.90 N), improving power consumption by 20.25%.

Conclusions:

• The adjoint technique effectively minimizes drag forces on AUV wings, enhancing hydrodynamic efficiency.
• POD analysis provides deeper insights into flow patterns, aiding simulation improvements.
• Optimized AUV designs offer substantial power savings and improved operational capabilities for marine applications.