Proceedings of the Thirty-second (2022) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
Shanghai, China, June 5–10, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-81-4; ISSN 1098-6189

www.isope.org

Experimental Research on the Influence of High Frequency Ultrasonic Waves on the Bubble Wake ofUnderwater Vehicles
Yun Wang, Jianwei Wu, Haixiong Zhu*, Qingjie Meng
Wuhan Second Ship Design and Research InstituteWuhan, Hubei, China

is to maintain the balance of the internal gas environment. Motion
cavitation is caused by the relative motion of the underwater vehicle
and the surrounding water under the condition of high-speed navigation.
In order to suppress the bubble wake features of underwater vehicles,
corresponding measures can be taken from the source. It is possible totransform gas into liquid or solid waste for control the bubble wakes
produced by gas discharge. And the bubble wakes produced by motion
cavitation can be weakened by the method of shape optimization. In
addition, for the bubble wake in the near-wake region, the highfrequency ultrasonic wave can be used to reduce the intensity of thebubble wake (Chen, 2004).
Based on a self-designed experimental system, a model experiment of
the bubble wake produced by the underwater vehicle is carried out. The
effect of high frequency ultrasonic waves on bubble wake features ofunderwater vehicles is studied. The influence law of the frequency andintensity of the ultrasonic wave on the features of bubble wake isanalyzed in detail. The relevant results obtained in this paper can beused to guide to study the inhibition of bubble wake features ofunderwater vehicles.

ABSTRACTThe influence of high frequency ultrasonic waves on the bubble wakefeatures of underwater vehicles is experimentally studied. The
experimental results show that under the action of the high frequency
ultrasonic wave, the bubble wake feature intensity of the underwater
vehicle is weakened and the duration is shortened. Under the same
intensity, the degree of attenuation of the bubble wake features isdifferent under the action of different frequency ultrasonic waves.
Among them, 1.2 MHz ultrasonic waves have the best inhibitory on thebubble wake. Under the same frequency, as the intensity increases, theinhibitory effect of the ultrasonic wave on the bubble wake is enhanced.

KEY WORDS: Underwater vehicle; bubble wake; high frequency
ultrasonic wave; inhibitory effect; feature intensity; feature duration;
experimental research.

INTRODUCTION
During the navigation of the underwater vehicle(mainly refers to themanned underwater vehicle), in order to maintain the balance of theinternal gas environment, it will exhaust gas into the waters throughwhich it is sailing. In addition, due to the movement of the underwater
vehicle and the rotation of the propeller, mixing in the surrounding
waters will be caused. The physical or chemical features of the area aredifferent from those in still waters, resulting in the so-called wakefeatures. In response to these differences in characteristics, thedevelopment of physical or chemical feature detection methods anddevices can indirectly detect, track underwater vehicles in the water. In
the past few decades, research on the wake features of underwater
vehicles has attracted more and more attention. The main research
direction includes the thermal wake (Zhang, Yang, Yuan, Liu andZhang, 2008), the internal wake (Zhao, You and Chen, 2009), thebubble wake (Gu, Tian, Zhang, AND Wang, 2012) and thebioluminescence wake (Cao, Wang and Luo, 2011).
The sources of the bubble wake of underwater vehicles mainly include
gas emissions and motion cavitation. The main purpose of gas emission

Experimental System and Method
Experimental System
The experimental research on the bubble wake is carried out in thetowing pool. The experimental system consists of an experimental pool,a towing system, an underwater vehicle model, a high frequency
ultrasonic wave emission system, an optical scattering feature
measuring system for bubble wake, and a data acquisition computer.
The schematic diagram of the experimental system is shown in Fig. 1.

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