Global optimization of underwater vehicle hull shape on flow resistance

For underwater vehicle with axisymmetric revolution body, the hull shape in the rotation axis section is the key issue on flow resistance. In this paper, we propose to use the elliptic Fourier descriptors for arbitrary hull shape modeling. By doing so, we can achieve global optimization of underwater vehicle hull shape on flow resistance. Experimental results using the computational fluid dynamics show superior improvement compared to the extensive used Myring shape with only first order elliptic Fourier descriptors under the same displacement constraint. In addition, the proposed method can be easily extend to the global optimization on flow noise.