Hydrodynamic Analysis on the Body of a Solar AUV by Numerical Method

Solar Autonomous Underwater Vehicles uses solar panels for providing energy. As limitation of energy and power in solar AUVs is strict and vital, the exact estimation of hydrodynamic resistance and power is important. In this paper, numerical hydrodynamic calculation for an AUV with 50 watts solar panels is performed. Hydrodynamic resistance in several speeds is calculated by CFD method in ANSYS FLUENT18, based on solving RANS equation and using K-ω SST turbulent method. For validation of CFD results, experimental results the Myring AUV is used and compared to numerical results. It shows a good agreement between numerical and experimental results and clears that K-ω SST turbulent method is an ideal method for simulating the low speed AUV problems