A potential-flow based flight simulator for an underwater glider

Surasak Phoemsapthawee (1) , Marc Le Boulluec (2) , Jean-Marc Laurens (3) , François Deniset (4)

1 International Maritime College
2 IFREMER - Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer
3 ENSTA Bretagne - École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées Bretagne
4 IRENAV - Institut de Recherche de l'Ecole Navale

Underwater gliders are recent innovative types of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) used in ocean exploration and observation. They adjust their buoyancy to dive and to return to the ocean surface. During the change of altitude, they use the hydrodynamic forces developed by their wings to move forward.Their flights are controlled by changing the position of their centers of gravity and their buoyancy to adjust their trim and heel angles.For better flight control, the understanding of the hydrodynamic behavior and the flight mechanics of the underwater glider is necessary. A 6-DOF motion simulator is coupled with an unsteady potential flow model for this purpose. In some specific cases, the numerical study demonstrates that an inappropriate stabilizer dimension can cause counter-steering behavior. The simulator can be used to improve the automatic flight control. It can also be used for the hydrodynamic design optimization of the devices.Keywords: underwater glider; potential flow; Newton-Euler equation; autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs); flight simulator

Mots clés: potential flow; underwater glider; autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs); flight simulator; Offshore Engineering

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Surasak Phoemsapthawee, Marc Le Boulluec, Jean-Marc Laurens, François Deniset. A potential-flow based flight simulator for an underwater glider. Journal of Marine Science and Application, 2013, 12 (1), pp.112-121. ⟨10.1007/s11804-013-1165-x⟩. ⟨hal-01087324⟩