Effects of Connection Type between Surface Vessel and Submersible Propeller on Motion Performance of Wave Glider

Abstract

Wave Glider is an autonomous surface vehicle that directly uses wave energy to generate forward power and has been widely used in marine survey and observation. Wave Glider is composed of surface vessel, submersible propeller and the connection structure between them. Connection types are thought to be related to the performance of Wave Glider closely. In this paper, the effects of the connection structure between the surface vessel and the submersible propeller on the motion performance of the Wave Glider are studied. Several connection types such as rigid rod, cable, multi-link chain and elastic rod are applied to connect the surface vessel and the submersible propeller. The models of connection structures are developed respectively. Among them, cable model is established with a finite number of small cylinders, which connected by spring and damping elements; multi-link chain can be seen as hinged by multiple rigid rods; elastic rod model can be looked on as several segments linked with elastic components. Considering the connection characteristics, the integrated dynamic models are established by applying multi-body dynamics software ADAMS (Automatic Dynamic Analysis of Mechanical Systems) with consideration of the hydrodynamic forces on different components of Wave Glider. The propulsion performance of the Wave Glider is calculated by using numerical method, and the simulation results showed that the difference of propulsion performance with different connection types of the Wave Glider is slightly. But serious impacts can occur on the connections of rigid rod and multi-link chain. They can lead to serious extra load on the structure of Wave Glider. From the engineering practice of Wave Glider application, the cable connection is more convenient to transport, deploy, recover and store. It is also the generous connection type for wave glider.

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