A vibration model for a buoyancy regulator considering the oil-structure-water coupling relationship

The vibration characteristics of the hydraulic buoyancy regulator can greatly affect the working performance of the large unmanned underwater vehicle. The traditional vibration methods usually ignored the influence of the fluid including the oil and water on the system dynamic performance. However, the hydraulic buoyancy regulator under the seawater cannot ignore the effect of the fluid including the oil and water. This paper presents an innovative vibration model for a hydraulic buoyancy regulator considering the oil-structure-water coupling relationship. The vibration model is verified by an experiment. The influence of the fluid on the dynamic characteristics of the hydraulic buoyancy regulator is studied. In addition, the effect of the vibration isolator stiffness on the isolation performance of isolator is studied. An optimization approach is proposed to improve the vibration performance of the hydraulic buoyancy regulator. For the optimized system, the maximum vibration amplitude is reduced about 98.4%. This work can provide some guidance for the dynamic performance improvement of the hydraulic buoyancy regulators.