Investigation of the resistance characteristics of a multi-AUV system

The multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV)sailing in a specific configuration can reduce resistance if properly using the hydrodynamic interactions. This paper investigated the resistance characteristics of a multi-AUV system with both experimental and numerical approaches. A center-beam-support bar structure was designed to conduct the experiment. Validation of our numerical method was carried out by comparing with the experimental data. Parametric studies were then performed on the distance, the speed and the number of AUVs. The numerical results showed that SST-transition model is more suitable for simulating the multi-AUV system at Reynolds numbers (Re)ranging from 2.46 × 10⁶ to 6.69 × 10⁶. At Re = 6.14 × 10⁶, the largest reduction of resistance can be 35.14% at d/L = 0. In the meantime, there appears some undesirable interference area between d/L = 0.042 and d/L = 0.063 where the total resistance of the fleet increases sharply. Apart from that, higher reduction of resistance can be expected with the increase of the speed and the number of AUVs.