IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol.

3, Issue 11, 2016 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613

Study Flow Analysis on Hull of a Maya-AUV

RaviSandeep Kumar Kona1 Sk.Himam Saheb2 M.Yashwanth Kumar3
1,2,3
Department of Mechanical Engineering
1,2,3
Gurunanak Institute of Technology, Ibrahimpatnam, R.R District, Telangana, India
Abstract— Coastal areas are among the most vulnerable of
all regions to global climate change which include global III. CLASSIFICATION OF UUV
warming, rising sea levels, increasing sea-surface Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), Remotely
temperatures etc. Also rise in the foreign insurgency through Operated Vehicle (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater
the oceans is forcing the nations to enhance the maritime glider (AUG) are the main autonomous underwater
surveillance & security capabilities. To check coasts from platforms currently available. The relationships between
climate change, foreign insurgency, reconnaissance and for those three types of vehicles were shown in the below
surveillance, search & rescue operations continuous mentioned figure.
monitoring of the shore & the seabed is essential. Replacing
the human divers with underwater vehicles with suite of
sensors would ensure the continuous observation of the
seashore & sea bed. An unmanned underwater vehicle
(UUV) is a small submarine, which is normally deployed for
various dangerous underwater tasks that include search and
rescue operations. Researchers at various institutes around
the world have made UUV’S of different hull & control
plane shapes for different applications, each of which has
advantages & disadvantages. The main objective of the
present project is to identify the right combination of the Fig. 3: Classification of UUV
hull & control plane shapes by performing fluid flow
simulation over various hull & control surfaces of UUV IV. HISTORY
separately & then integrating them. After the integration, The first AUV was developed at the Applied Physics
position of control surface over the hull is also varied to Laboratory at the University of Washington as early as 1957
study their effect on hydrodynamic characteristics. In this by Stan Murphy, Bob Francois and later on, Terry Ewart.
Study flow analysis is performed on hull shape modeled The “Special Purpose Underwater Research Vehicle”, or
with the dimensions of MAYA AUV which was developed SPURV, was used to study diffusion, acoustic transmission,
at the National institute of Oceanography Goa India with and submarine wakes.
various nose shapes and the best suitable nose shape of the Other early AUVs were developed at the
hull is chosen from the simulation results. Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1970s. One of
Key words: Underwater Vehicle, Maya UUV, Flow these is on display in the Hart Nautical Gallery in MIT. At
Simulation, Control Planes of Maya, Forces on Airfoil, the same time, AUVs were also developed in the Soviet
Research on UUV, Aerodynamic Center, Aspect Ratio Union (although this was not commonly known until much
later). , AUVs are now becoming increasingly used to carry
I. INTRODUCTION out underwater tasks, especially those that are too hazardous
Underwater Vehicle: An Unmanned Underwater Vehicle or impractical for manned or tethered underwater vehicles.
(UUV) is a small submarine, which is normally deployed for
A. Brief Chronological History of AUV Development
monitoring the marine environment & performing various
dangerous underwater tasks that include search and rescue It is informative to understand what has happed over the
operation. UUV’s are very useful in executing and past few decades relative to the development of AUVs. It is
completing dangerous task effectively with minimum cost clear that the process has led to a technology whose time has
and risks. arrived. AUV development began in the 1960s. A few
AUVs vehicles are built mostly to focus on very specific
applications / data gathering. There are not a great amount
of published papers that describe these efforts.
 1970 - 1980 - Explore the Potential of AUVs:
Technology development; some test beds built.
 1980 - 1990 - Experiment with Prototypes:
Advances in technology reinforce development
efforts, Proofs of Concept (POC) prototypes are
Fig. 1: Solcum Glider developed/tested/used.
 1990 - 2000 - Goal Driven Tech. Development:
II. DEFINITION OF PROBLEM Broader based funding of technology development,
The main objective of this project is to identify the right Many AUVs developed internationally. Users
combination of the hull & control plane shapes to enhance awake.
aerodynamic performance of an UUV through fluid flow During this decade, AUVs grew from proof of
visualization over various hull & control surfaces of UUV. concept test beds into first generation operational systems

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able to be tasked to accomplish defined objectives. A D. Deep Water Seabed Mapping:

number of organizations around the world undertook
development efforts focused on various operational tasks.
Potential users surfaced and helped to define mission
systems necessary to accomplish the objectives of their data
gathering programs. This decade also identified new
paradigms for AUV utilization such as the Autonomous
Oceanographic Sampling System (AOSN) [Curtin] and
provided the resources necessary to move the technology
closer to commercialization.

V. NEED FOR UNMANNED UNDERWATER VEHICLE

Fig. 4: Sea Bed Mapping
Coastal areas are among the most vulnerable of all regions The Problem of deepwater seabed mapping: Detailed seabed
to global climate change. Projected impacts from global mapping is a necessity for deep water oil and gas
warming include rising sea levels, intensification of tropical explorations. Due to range limitations, hull-mounted high
cyclones, larger storm surges, increasing sea-surface resolution echo sounders cannot be utilized at deep waters.
temperatures, growing acidification of surface waters needs The conventional solution to this problem is to mount the
constant monitoring. Also rise in the foreign insurgency & echo sounders on towed or remotely operated vehicles
smuggling through the oceans is forcing the nations to (ROV) operating close to the seabed. This solution is
enhance the maritime surveillance & security capabilities. inaccurate and time-consuming, and thus expensive.
Monitoring marine environment is difficult and costly for
humans as divers have inherent problems which include: VII. RESEARCH ON UUV
 High Cost
Autonomous underwater technology and underwater
 Unavailability of Suitably Trained Personnel For
robotics are being vigorously pursued in many
The Number of Ships Needing Inspection
technologically advanced countries such as the U.S.,
 Safety Concerns Australia, Germany, Russia, Korea, and Japan. There are
 Low Output some companies like THALES, I ROBOTS and MARPORT
 Unsustainable Working Time & Hostile which have been commercially making UUV of different
Underwater Conditions To Do A Job. specifications. Various research institutes across the world
To reduce the working load of divers and are making significant contribution to development of
significantly accelerate inspection process, it would be UUV’S in terms of energy source (battery), automaticity,
highly desirable and efficient to deploy affordable UUV’s. endurance with different hull & control plane shapes. Here
are some the commercially available UUV’s
VI. APPLICATIONS OF UUV
Applications of an UUV can be broadly classified into VIII. AIRFOIL NOMENCLATURE
military applications & environmental monitoring: Mean Camber Line: The major design feature of an airfoil is
A. Military Applications: mean camber line, which is the locus of points halfway
between the upper and lower surfaces as measured
perpendicular to the camber line itself.
A. Leading & Trailing Edge:
The most forward and the rearward points of the mean
camber line are called leading and trailing edges,
respectively.
B. Chord Line:
Fig. 2: Military Applications The straight line connecting the leading and the trailing
edges is the chord line of the airfoil, and the precise distance
B. Environmental Monitoring: from the leading to the trailing edge measured along the
C. Tsunami Surveillance System: chord line is designated as the chord of the airfoil, given by
the symbol, C.
C. Camber:
Camber is the maximum distance between the mean camber
line and the chord line, measured perpendicular to the chord
line. The camber, the shape of the mean camber line, and to
a lesser extent, the thickness distribution of the airfoil
essentially controls the lift and moment characteristics of the
airfoil.
 Positive camber
 Negative camber
Fig. 3: Tsunami Surveillance System

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D. Aspect Ratio:  If F2>F1, then positive lift is produced & this

It is defined as the ratio of length of the wing to its width. raises the airfoil.
The “aspect ratio” is simply a comparison between the  If F1>F2, then negative lift is produced & this
length and width of the wing. Experiments have shown that lowers the airfoil.
a wing built with a higher aspect ratio tends to create less 2) Lift on Symmetric Airfoil:
drag than a wing built with a smaller aspect ratio even when
their area remains the same.
For most wings the length of the chord is not a
constant but varies along the wing, so the aspect ratio is
defined as the square of the wingspan divided by the area of
the wing planform, this is equal to the length-to-breadth
ratio for constant breadth.

Fig. 7: Variation of lift with angle of attack for symmetric

airfoil
As shown in the graph, lift curve for a symmetrical airfoil
Fig. 5: Airfoil Geometry goes through the origin. As the angle of attack (α) increases,
coefficient of lift (CL) varies linearly. As α is increased
E. Angle Of Attack (AOA):
beyond a certain value, coefficient of lift peaks at some
The angle between the relative wind and the chord line is the maximum value, (CL) max and then drops precipitously as α
angle of attack of the airfoil, represented by α. is further increased. In this situation, where the lift is rapidly
F. Aerodynamic Center: decreasing at high α, the airfoil is stalled. The phenomenon
of airfoil stall is of critical importance. It is caused by flow
Point about which the moments about leading edge &
separation on the upper surface of the airfoil. The effect of
quarter chord (usually depends on angle of attack) do not
friction is to slow the airflow near the surface, in the
change with angle of attack is called aerodynamic center.
presence of adverse pressure gradient; there will be a
G. Aerodynamic Forces: tendency for the boundary layer to separate from surface. As
Shear stress distribution & Pressure distribution create an the angle of attack is increased, the adverse pressure
aerodynamic force over the wing surface. In turn the gradient on the top surface of the airfoil will become
aerodynamic force can be resolved into two forces, parallel stronger and at some value of α-the stalling angle of attack –
& perpendicular to the relative wind. The drag D is always the flow becomes separated from the top surface. When
defined as the component of the aerodynamic force to the separation occurs, the lift decreases drastically and the drag
relative wind. The lift L is always defined as the component increases suddenly.
of the aerodynamic force perpendicular to the relative wind. 3) Lift on Cambered airfoil:

Fig. 1: Forces on Airfoil

In addition to the lift & drag, shear & pressure
distributions also creates a moment M which tends to rotate
the wing. Fig. 8: Variation of lift with angle of attack for cambered
1) How Lift is Produced? airfoil
Consider the cambered airfoil at zero angle of attack as On examining the variation of Cl with α, Cl varies linearly
shown in the figure below. Consider the pressure on the top with α over large range of angle of attack. When α=0, there
surface of the airfoil. This pressure gives rise to a net force is still a positive value of cl; that is, there is still some lift
of F1 in general downward direction. F1 acts through a even when the airfoil is at zero angle of attack to the flow.
given point on the chord line, point 1 which can be found by this is due to the positive camber of the airfoil. All airfoils
integrating the pressure times the distance over the surface. with such camber have to be pitched to some negative angle
Now consider just the pressure on the bottom surface of the of attack before zero lift is obtained. The value of α when
airfoil. This pressure gives rise to a net force F2 in the lift is zero is defined as the zero-lift angle of attack.
general upward direction through point 2. The total At the other extreme for large value of α, the
aerodynamic force is the summation of forces F1 & F2. linearity of the lift curve breaks down and airfoil is stalled
Difference of these forces produces lift. due to flow separation.

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Fig. 11: Forces acting on the airfoil

D. Hull Shape:
To maintain the proportionality among the various
dimensions of the hull shape, dimensions of the existing
Fig. 9: Variation of lift on airfoil with & without separation
AUV MAYA were considered. Maya was developed at the
H. Wind Tunnel: National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India.
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic A simplified longitudinal section of the Maya AUV
research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects. is shown in figure below:
A wind tunnel consists of a tubular passage with the object
under test mounted in the test section of the tunnel.

Fig. 9: Longitudinal section of the Maya

X. SPECIFICATION OF MAYA AUV

Fig. 10: Schematic diagram of the wind tunnel S.NO Particular Dimension(m)
1 Bare hull length 1.742m
IX. FLOW SIMULATION 2 Middle Body length 1.246
3 Hull maximum diameter 0.234
A. Hydrodynamic Parameters: 4 Nose length 0.217
Following hydrodynamic parameters that are required for 5 Base diameter 0.057
the present project are observed in experimentation and in Table 1: Specifications of AUV
COSMOS FLOXPRESS, which are as follows: Total hull length =Nose +mid-body + tail cone
 Drag force
A. Hull with different Nose Shapes:
 Lift force
With the aim of identifying the best nose shape for this
B. Drag Force: configuration, hull is modeled with the above dimensions
It refers to the force that acts on the solid body in the but with varying nose cone. Flow simulation was carried out
direction of the relative fluid flow velocity. on the following nose shapes.
 Conical
FD = drag force  Ellipsoid
υ = velocity of body relative to fluid  Tangent arc.
ρ = density of fluid Input conditions / boundary conditions for flow
CD = coefficient of drag simulation over the hull shapes with above mentioned nose
A = reference area shapes.
C. Lift Force: B. Medium: Water
It refers to the vertical force that acts on the moving body by  Velocity in x-direction: 5m/sec
the fluid flowing around it.  Velocity in y-direction: 0
1  Velocity in z-direction: 0
FD = Aρυ2 CL
2  Temperature: 23 °C
FL = lift force
 Pressure: 1.45MPa
υ = velocity of body relative to fluid
 Surface roughness: 0.002
ρ = density of fluid
CL= coefficient of drag  Chord length =200mm
A = reference area  Wing span= 250mm
 Angle of attack: 0 degrees.

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S.
NOSE SHAPE Drag (N) Lift (N) L/D
No
1 Cone 88.873 -0.255021 0.0287
Fig. 10: Cone Nose Shape 2 Ellipsoid 107.708 -0.423819 0.00393
3 Tangent Arc 80.9441 -2.167123 0.46146
Table 2: Results
Fig. 11: Ellipsoid Nose shape C. Simulation results of hull with 3 different nose shapes
From the simulation results tabulated above, it can be seen
that hull shape with tangent arc nose shape is the best suited
for the UUV because of its low drag and high negative lift.
Fig. 10: Tangent Arc Nose shape
XI. DESIGN OF MAYA UUV
A small AUV called Maya, developed at the National
Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India. Part of the
development effort was done in the scope of an on-going
India-Portugal collaboration program that aims to build and
test the joint operation of two small AUVs for marine
science applications.
A. Maya Hull Description:
A simplified longitudinal section of the Maya AUV is
shown in figure below:

Fig. 12: Pressure distribution over the hull shape with cone
nose shape

Fig. 15: Longitudinal section of the Maya

Fig. 13: Pressure distribution over the hull shape with

ellipsoid nose shape

Table 3: Specification

XII. SPECIFICATIONS OF MAYA

The total hull length L is the sum of nose, mid-body and tail
cone lengths, and equals to 1.742m. The maximum hull
diameter D = 0.234 m, results in a fineness ratio (L/D) equal
to 7.44.
The mid-body section (or CPU) was machined
from a single high quality solid round aluminium bar free of
surface and deep defects as verified by ultrasonic tests of the
raw material. The bar was first accurately bored along a
horizontal X axis from either end, and then bored in a
vertical Z direction to create a hollowed out receptacle that
Fig. 14: Pressure distribution over the hull shape with matched the external contours of the Doppler Velocity Log
tangent arc nose shap (or DVL). This is best seen in the Solid Works drawing of

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Fig.7 which provides an isometric 3D view of the complete C. Nose and Tail Cones of Maya:
AUV with the internal components. This approach to the The front nose cone and the tail fairing of the AUV were
construction of the main hull provides the freedom to adjust made from GFRP (glass fibre reinforced plastic) which is
its wall thickness to the desired yield stress of the hull not designed to withstand high pressures, but as initial costs
volume, besides accommodating the odd shape of the DVL are low it allows speedy experimentation of the total body
sensor. form in water. The front nose section can be detached from
Both ends of the CPU are O-ring sealed by the main hull so as to access the end cap and the internal
identical pressure end caps on which underwater connectors parts within the main hull. The volume within the cone can
are mounted. Locking collars are threaded over the outer be used to accommodate wet sensors wired to power and
surface of the hull. Threaded holes on the collars are used to signal connectors on the front end cap. A variety of nose
bolt the nose and rear cones to the main hull body. cones can be fabricated and populated to accommodate
A. Pressure Tests on the Bare Main Hull: mission-specific sensors. The shape of the nose cone is a
low drag slender ellipsoid different from the torpedo shaped
The main hull of length 1.24m and wall thickness of 6 mm
noses of other small AUVS namely REMUS (USA) or
was designed to withstand a maximum pressure of 40 bar
GAVIA (Iceland).
(approx. 400m). As it was too long to fit in available
pressure test chambers, it was decided to pressure test it at
sea on a cruise of opportunity to the Arabian Sea. The unit
was sealed at both ends by the end caps, and DVL port
plugged with a dummy cap. The hull collars were secured to
C-clamps and the entire unit lowered using the ships winch
to a depth of 178 meters. It was submerged at this depth for
a period of 1 hour. This straight forward method checks
integrity against leakage of water through O-ring seals, the
hull, and the pressure sensor mounted on the end cap all in Fig. 16: Nose Section
one go. A drop of ~ 55 mbar (from atmospheric) in internal The photograph shows Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
pressure caused by colder waters at 178m in contact with the sensor mounted on tip of nose cone and the sensing part of
bare hull was monitored with a miniature data logger. chlorophyll-turbidity protruding from the base of the nose
cone. A miniature CTD nose cone has also been used with
B. Internal Components within the CPU: the Maya hull. The tail cone section of Maya is split into
The arrangement of internal parts is shown visually in figure two symmetrical halves that encase the stainless steel
below. Starting from the nose end of the hull, there is a framework on which the DC thruster is mounted. It is
module consisting of the batteries, electronics, and the attached to the collar over the rear end-cap of main hull. The
attitude sensor mounted on a removable tray. The DVL and shape of the combined tail cone section follows a Myring
associated electronic cards fit neatly into the hollow made profile with an enclosed angle of 25 degrees and exponent 2
for it. Moving past the DVL, the hull volume provides space (Myring 1976). We adopted this shape as it has a gentle
for three integrated shaft seals and actuator motors. The tapered profile that serves to direct the flow of water along
upper rudder port was fitted out with a short white acetal the hull into the propeller blades of the motor. There is
stub which encloses the GPS and RF antenna. At the time ample volume within the tail cone to also accommodate
of fabrication, it was decided to use the rudder port to house sensors, and a communications stub that now occupies the
the antenna stub, as no provision had been made for it in the top rudder port.
prototype design. There was an added curiosity to check D. Control Planes of Maya:
how AUV performance would be affected with the use of a
single rudder. Subsequent field tests have shown that 3
control foils (two stern and one rudder) can produce
acceptable performance, but with increased roll during a
heading change. (The ‘roll’ effect is examined in a
companion paper by P. Maurya et. al. at this conference

Fig. 17: Schematic of control foil on Maya

There are three control foils on Maya i.e a pair of stern
planes and a single rudder. The shape profiles of these foils
Fig. 15: Parts of UUV follow a standard NACA 0015 section with an aspect ratio

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 Study Flow Analysis on Hull of a Maya-AUV
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of 4.27 and a leading edge angle of 10.6 degrees. The Vehicle”, Journal of Engineering science and
NACA section is symmetric, is easy to machine, has a zero Technology, Vol. 2, No.2, (2007) 119-125.
lift force at zero angle of attack, and possesses a good [3] Kirubakaran.S, Karthick.S, “Autonomous Underwater
torsional rigidity with a high thickness to chord ratio. The Hybrid Vehicle for Ocean Surveillance”, International
shaft of the actuator motor otherwise known as the ‘rudder Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
stock’ is embedded at a distance equal to a quarter of the (IJEST), Vol.3, No 5 May 2011, ISSN: 0975-5462.
root chord (Cr) from the leading edge of the foil. [4] Christopher Von Alt, Woods Hole, “Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles”, Oceanographic Institution,
March 24, 2003.
[5] R. Madhan, Elgar Desa, S.Prabhudesai, L.Sebastiao,
Antonio Pascoal, Ehrlich Desa, A. Mascarenhas,
Pramod Maurya, G.Navelkar, S. Afzulpurkar, S.
Khalap, “ Mechanical design and development aspects
of a small AUV – MAYA”, National Institute of
Oceanography, Goa.
[6] Matt Lombard, “Solid works 2009 Bible”, Wiley
Publishing, Inc. ISBN: 978-0-470-25825-5, 2009.

Table 1: Major parameters of control planes.

XIII. RESULTS & CONCLUSION

Under similar boundary conditions & with water as medium,
simulation was carried out on 3 different nose shapes (cone,
ellipsoid & tangent arc) from the results of which it can be
concluded that hull shape with tangent arc nose shape is the
best suited for the UUV because of its low drag and high
negative lift i.e high L/D ratio.
From the simulation results which are shown in this
article and are calculated according to the procedure, it can
be seen that hull shape with tangent arc nose shape is the
best suited for the UUV because of its low drag and high
negative lift as said above.

XIV. SAFETY ASPECTS

Building in safety features on the AUV is of prime
importance and we have considered and implemented the
following:
1) Power safety which monitors the bus voltage on a
network node, and redirects the AUV towards
home coordinates if the power level falls below a
minimum threshold level.
2) Software safety ensures that the AUV thruster is
shutdown if the vehicle crosses programmed depth
or exceeds a set pitch angle.
3) Mechanical safety that drops a weight should
electronic methods fail.
The last method has not been implemented as yet,
but will be incorporated in the near future.

XV. FUTURE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

Extended study of this project can be done by considering:
1) Dynamics & buoyancy effects on UUV.
2) Turbulence conditions during the release of UUV
from the submarine.

REFERENCES
[1] John D.Anderson Jr., “Introduction to Flight”, McGraw
Hill Publications, 5th edition, 2007.
[2] Firdaus Abdullah, Matthieu Ferraro, Andrew Rigit,
“Design Optimization of an Unmanned Underwater

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