Design And Experiments On Underwater Gliders Propelled By Thermal Engine

Underwater gliders can take different kinds of sensors to complete measure work in a long duration and large range by means of glide without being manipulated. They are very important for the survey of ocean environment. If underwater gliders are organized in the range of some longitude and latitude as a measure web, then they are able to cover most of oceans in the world. As a result, they will have more foregrounds in the field of scientific and military tasks.Though the performance of the traditional gliders powered by electricity has been proven very reliable in the kinds of gliders, the navigating endurance and range are subjected to the limit of battery capacity. The members in our laboratory successfully develop the thermal engine which is the drive equipment of the glider powered by thermal energy.This paper expounds the constitution and work principle of the underwater gliders, summarizes its design flow and set the dynamics model of the system. We conclude some factors which influence navigation performances of the glider. We also analyze thermodynamics performances of the heat exchanger of the thermal engine and simulate the heat transfer by ADINA. We research thermodynamics performances of the thermal engine and prove its feasibility through some experiments. Ultimately we successfully develop the underwater glider powered by thermal energy on the basis of this principle and do the experiment in the deep lake.