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

Numerical Study on The Effect of Wing Position Lifting on The Motion Performance of a Hybrid-Driven
Underwater Glider
Pengyao Yu1, Xiangcheng Wu1*, Xiaohan Lin1, Jiayi Liu1, Yi Lin2
1

College of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China
2CNNP Oceanic Nuclear Power Development Co., Ltd, Shanghai City, China

the wing at the farthest point aft improves the performance of the glider
but the increase is very small and visible at higher attack angle. Javaid(2017) studied the effect of wing form on the hydrodynamic
characteristics of a UG. The results show that the glider with rectangle
wings has higher lift force and drag force than the glider with taperedwings due to a larger wetted area. Zhang (2014) developed a prototype
of a gliding robotic fish with two types of wings with the same wingspan
but different aspect ratios. The results show that the larger wings resultin shallower gliding paths but a slower gliding speed compared with thesmaller wings. Liu (2014) designed an orthogonal test to study theimpact of wings on the movement efficiency and stability of a HUG. The
results show that the chord length has the most remarkable effect on themovement efficacy and the sweep angle has the most significant impact
on the stability of the HUG.
In addition to the study on the hydrodynamic characteristics by the CFD
method, the dynamic motion characteristics are also studied by motion
simulation. Graver and Leonard (2001) developed a dynamic model ofgeneral UGs which is widely referenced in subsequent studies. Leonardand Graver (2001) derived feedback control law for UGs based on thedynamic model and equilibrium equation. Isa and Arshad (2011a, 2011b)
established a kinetic model for the UG designed by the University ofScience, Malaysia. Fan and Woolsey (2014) presented a multibody
dynamic model for a UG which was operating in an unsteady nonuniform flow field.
The effect of wings on the hydrodynamic characteristics of UGs has beenstudied by the CFD method. To our knowledge, previous studies focused
mainly on the effect of wing geometric parameters and horizontal
position and the effect of wing position lifting has not been fully
investigated. In this paper, two glider models with different wing height
positions are taken as comparative analysis objects. And the effect ofwing position lifting is studied by comparing hydrodynamicperformance and two typical motion states: steady gliding and adjusting
gliding angle.
This rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 1 introduces thedynamic model of UGs. Section 2 describes the models constructed inthis paper and calculates the hydrodynamic parameters needed by thisstudy. Section 3 simulates two motion states of the models and analyses
the effect of wing position lifting. Finally, the major conclusions areABSTRACT
A hybrid-driven underwater glider (HUG) is a new type of unmanned
underwater vehicle which combines the advantages of traditional
underwater gliders (UGs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).
In this paper, a new design scheme, equipping a foldable wing moduleon the top of the HUG, is proposed to reduce the drag force generated bythe wing in AUV mode. And the effect of wing position lifting on themotion performance in UG mode is studied by computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) methodology and motion simulation. The results showthat the wing lifting reduces the lift force of the glider and increases thedrag force. But the wing lifting makes the movable block movement
distance smaller, which is required for the glider to reach the target
gliding angle.

KEY WORDS: Wing position lifting; motion simulation; hybriddriven underwater glider.

INTRODUCTION
An underwater glider (UG) is a special type of autonomous underwater
vehicle which is controlled by adjusting its buoyancy. For thecharacteristics of low energy consumption, low cost and long range,
several typical UGs have been developed and broadly applied in physicaland biological oceanography, such as Slocum (Webb, 2001), Spray(Sherman, 2001) and Seaglider (Eriksen, 2001). The gliding speed of
traditional UGs is usually very slow, and a thruster is sometimes added
to improve the speed. The UG equipped with a thruster is usually called
the hybrid-driven underwater glider (HUG). When the thruster isworking, the HUG has higher velocity, but the wing produces much dragforce. So, a new design scheme, equipping a foldable wing module on
the top of the HUG, is proposed to reduce the drag force in this paper.
There is no doubt that the change of wing structure will affect the gliding
motion performance of the glider. And some scholars have studied theseeffects. Shankar and Vijayakumar (2020) studied the effect of wing
position on the hydrodynamic characteristics of a UG by computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology. The results show that positioning

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