DESIGN OPTIMISATION OF AN UNMANNED UNDERWATER VEHICLE

The results of fluid flow simulation around an unmanned underwater vehicle(UUV) are presented in this paper. The UUV represents a small submarine forunderwater search and rescue operation, which suits the local river conditions.The flow simulation was performed with a commercially availablecomputational fluid dynamics package, Star-CD. The effects of the UUVgeometry on the velocity and pressure distributions on the UUV surface werediscussed for Re = 500,000 and 3,000,000. The discussion led to an improveddesign of the UUV with a smoother velocity profile around the UUV body.