Underwater Feature Comparison of a Fan-Wing, a Propeller and a Fixed-Wing

Fan-wing thrusters are firstly used on the aircrafts, and then demonstrated underwater. Although the force generation on the underwater fan-wing thruster is demonstrated, the advantages of fan-wing over other propulsors have not been proved. In this paper, a UFT, a vertical placed propeller and a fixed-wing with a high lift to drag ratio is compared in the aspects of underwater propulsion performance. The aspects in study include vertical force, forward drag and efficiency defined. Computational fluid dynamics simulations are carried out in the conditions of different rotational speeds of the moving parts and different cruise velocities. Based on the simulation results, the characteristics of the propulsors are discussed. In the high cruise velocity conditions, the UFT can generate a significant higher vertical force with high efficiency and low forward drag. In the low cruise velocity condition, the propeller performance better on vertical force generation and efficiency. The fixed-wing is the most efficient in all the simulation conditions.