CFD Modeling of the Hydrodynamics of the CIDESI Underwater Glider

A hydrodynamic analysis is performed for a glider designed in the Center for Engineering and Industrial Development (CIDESI). The CIDESI glider configuration is proposed as an in-house design pretending to be a low cost submarine vehicle for monitoring and collecting data in remote locations of the Mexican seabed. The main goal of the present study is to compute the hydrodynamic forces and moments exerted on the glider at different motion conditions. The analysis is carried out through the implementation of computational fluid dynamics simulations. Steady state simulations were implemented using a RANS turbulence model with wall functions to capture the boundary layer effects with a coarse grid. The hydrodynamic curves for the force and moment components are presented and the coefficients were computed. As a part of the integral project for the results obtained for this study will be incorporated into a dynamic model of the glider in order to simulate its motion and eventually design the required control strategies for the different operating scenarios during its mission.