Numerical analysis of stability and manoeuvrability of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) with fishtail shape

Abstract This paper aims to understand the stability and the manoeuvrability of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) through the simulation of the drag, lift and torque acting on the hull by the passing seawater. These are important questions in deep water conditions where telecommand is impracticable. The present study is based on the behaviour of a stern shaped as a fishtail in three different ways, and considers several attack angles. The solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations are computed with the OpenFOAM library. An open source library based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM) using C++ language. An analysis of the effects of the fishtail shape on the resistance and stability is based on the calculation of the averages drag, lift and torque. A filtering on the Fourier transform of the torque is used to discuss the manoeuvrability in each case.