Evaluation of the added mass for a spheroid-type unmanned underwater vehicle by vertical planar motion mechanism test

ABSTRACTThis paper shows added mass and inertia can be acquired from the pure heaving motion and pure pitching motion respectively. A Vertical Planar Motion Mechanism (VPMM) test for the spheroid-type Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) was compared with a theoretical calculation and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis in this paper. The VPMM test has been carried out at a towing tank with specially manufactured equipment. The linear equations of motion on the vertical plane were considered for theoretical calculation, and CFD results were obtained by commercial CFD package. The VPMM test results show good agreement with theoretical calculations and the CFD results, so that the applicability of the VPMM equipment for an underwater vehicle can be verified with a sufficient accuracy.