Hydrodynamic modelling for a small-scale underwater vehicle using computational fluid dynamics

Accurate mathematical models especially accurate hydrodynamic parameters of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) are essential for good control performance. This paper provides a general framework for the hydrodynamic modeling of a small-scale UUV. In place of physical experiments such as captive model tests, a virtual model test and simulation was conducted via commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to predict the hydrodynamic coefficients. Fourier analysis was employed and linear least squares estimation was used to calculate hydrodynamic coefficients. The method was then verified through the use of a test case with an established theoretical which demonstrates the effectiveness of the method.