Flow Analysis of Manned Submersible

Manned submersible is an underwater vehicle operated by personnel sitting inside a water tight pressure hull. It is capable of carrying out 6000 m water depth underwater exploration. For underwater propulsion, estimation of resistance is required for the calculation of power to select suitable thrusters. Computational fluid dynamics can be used for the near accurate estimation of resistance forces acting on manned submersible. Three different versions of manned submersible, ‘Outer Foam Version', ‘Bottom-Covered Version' & ‘Bottom-Not-Covered Version' are analyzed & it is found that drag forces in Bottom-Not-Covered Version is considerably high. Based on the results obtained, the shape of it is optimized thus reducing the resistance forces. Manned submersibles around the world are observed to optimize the shape for reduction of drag forces.