Effects of front shapes of mini revolving AUV on sailing resistance characteristics

In order to analyse the effects of different front shapes to sailing resistance acting on AUVs(autonomous underwater vehicles), four different front revolving shapes of AUVs are designed with the aid of 3D parametric design software Solidworks, empirical formula and computational fluid dynamics software CFX are used to analyse and calculate the sailing resistance of four schemes, and comparing the results in two ways, eventually get the reasonable scheme with small sailing resistance and large effective space. Based on the analysis and comparison, under the condition of the same length and the length to diameter ratio, the sailing resistance acting on AUV is smallest when the stem shape of AUV is the complete parabolic curve, and the friction resistance is the main part of the total resistance when AUV is at low velocity. This conclusion is of great significance to the shape design of AUVs.