A Research On Thrust Characteristics Of Ducted Propeller In Underwater Vehicle System

Underwater Vehicle(Underwater Vehicle, called UV),is a motional instrument which is consisted of sensitive sensor(mainly includes visual sensor and velocity sensor etc.) and both can be controlled by a remoter or works on its own to manipulate the mechanical hand or other tools aiming at substituting or supporting man in the underwater task such as observation, salvage or construction. Propellor is an essential device which guarantees the well function of UV: accomplishment of the complex target-task and sustainable navigation, which is due to the fact that it is the ducted propellor which supplies the stable manipulating power and accurate control to UV. Therefore, apparently, the study on the feature of the propeller’s propulsive force is the key which determines the successful accomplishing of scheduled task with regard to the UV whose main propulsive force and controlling device mainly comes from the propeller. Moreover it will help us in better figuring out the capability and vital elements of the UV controlling system by analyzing the properties of the propeller in different motional state when the UV was operated under varies task.The current research on the dynamic analysis of ducted propellor generally focused on the propulsive force of the propellor which is generated by uni-directional flow by using the MRF model or Sliding mesh aiming at working out the open water characteristic curves of the propellor or on the constant hydrodynamic of the ducted propellor by changing the direction of the flow under different circumstances. However, all the methods mentioned above ignore the inertial forces which resides in the unsteady motions of UV in practice as well as the influence which the inertial force exerts on the propulsive force of ducted propeller.This paper takes the UV-assembly and the ducted propeller as a whole and studies on their mutual influence and the effects put on the ducted propellor by different parts of the UVassembly when it is operated under water in the condition of unsteady flow field. The application of multi-sliding mesh technology in the calculation of numerical simulation ensures both the unsteady movement of the UV system and the rotation of each ducted propellor, and then calculates the whole instrument groups under the practical operating conditions. Thereafter, a result will be worked out which fits the project in reality. At the end, the analysis on the former result and the correspondent distribution of flow field in the duct will be given to discuss the relevance between the propusive force of the ducted propellor when the turn bow swings and the distribution of the flow field on the propellor plane.This paper figures out the essential factors which influence the propulsive force features of ducted propellor through numerical simulation by the suggested calculating methods. These findings supplies significant guidance to design of ducted propellor in the UV system.