The deep submergence rescue vehicle (DSRV) is of great value for the rescue of wrecked submarines and clandestine missions, which demands accurate prediction of the hydrodynamic characteristics at the early design stage. We presented numerical and experimental investigations on the hydrodynamic performance of a real complexshaped DSRV. The viscous flow field was achieved by solving the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for incompressible, steady flows in straight line and oblique motions. The Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω model was introduced to deal with the turbulence modeling. A series of simulations with drift angles varying between 0 to 90 degrees were conducted. The computed forces and moments as a function of drift angles were verified with those of experiments. The trend matches well between simulation and experiment results, and the maximum difference is less than 15% in resistance. Detailed flow field information consisting of vortex structures and boundary layer separation on the leeward side were analyzed. It was shown that the hydrodynamics can be well predicted for a complex geometry by using sufficiently fine mesh and advanced turbulence models.
With the great capability of traveling over long distance and keeping good concealment, submarines have been treated as effective means of naval tactical attack and strategic defense. However, given the particularity of the operational environment in deep water and far from the land, rescue of a wrecked or bottomed submarine can be very difficult. More than 180 submarines and 3000 sailors have been broken and killed among over 400 major accidents since 1990s. In 2000, the Russian "Kursk" nuclear submarine crashed and all 118 officers and men on board were killed. This disaster has given countries a highprofile proposition of assisting submarine rescue and once again drew the attention to research on submarine rescue technology and equipment. Deep submergence rescue vehicle (DSRV) is designed for retrieving sailors from stranded submarines, and believed to be the most reliable and effective way and the main development direction of submarine rescue in nowadays and future (Schreiber, Bentkowsky, and Kerr, 1970). When docking with the wrecked submarine, it is necessary to consider the influence of fluid flow and sea conditions, which demands precise maneuverability under severe sea conditions. Thus, the accurate estimation of the hydrodynamic forces and moments acting on the hull is indispensable.
