Motion forecast of intelligent underwater sampling apparatus —— Part II: CFD simulation and experimental results

Abstract

The part II of the paper adopts the steady-state superposition algorithm proposed in Part I to simulate the vertical surfacing motion and the horizontal drift of the intelligent underwater sampling apparatus (IUSA) under sea current, in order to figure out the surfacing time and horizontal recovery range on the surface of the sea. Through dividing the surfacing process into a number of infinitesimal segments, the velocity, fluid force and displacement of the IUSA are obtained by resorting to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, and the procedure of pre-treatment, solver and post-treatment of Fluent is presented in detail. Simulation results based on SolidWorks and FLUENT are compared which also show the proposed algorithm can meet the requirements of the motion forecast of the IUSA. Preliminary experimental results in East Lake validate that the theoretical algorithm and the computational method are effective within the allowable error range, which can guide the mission operator to recover the IUSA on the broad sea area.