Research on Hydrodynamic Performance of a 30 kW Rim-Driven Thruster and Its Coupling Mechanism with an AUV

With the continuous expansion of deep-sea resource exploration, marine environmental monitoring, and underwater operations, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have been increasingly widely applied. Aiming at the demand for high-performance main propulsion systems of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), this paper conducts research on the structural design and hydrodynamic performance of a 30 kW rim-driven thruster (RDT) and its coupling mechanism with AUVs. By combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and experimental methods, the influence of the advance coefficient on the open-water performance of the thruster is revealed. An integrated coupling simulation model of the AUV and RDT is established to analyze the performance attenuation law of the thruster and the characteristics of the coupled flow field under wake flow conditions, and to clarify the two-way interaction mechanism between the thruster and AUV. Towing tank tests were carried out at sailing speeds ranging from 1 to 4 kn, which verifies the reliability of the numerical simulation model and the matching performance between the thruster and AUV. The results show that the open-water efficiency of the thruster reaches a peak value of 0.536 at the advance coefficient J=0.8, which is close to the optimal efficiency range with good matching performance of the propulsion system Under wake flow conditions, the attenuation range of the thrust coefficient of the thruster is 12.45–16.53% with the increase in advance coefficient. The main reasons are the uneven inflow velocity and unstable flow field pressure distribution caused by the non-uniform wake flow at the AUV stern. At the ship speeds of 2 kn, 3 kn and 4 kn, the self-propulsion rotational speeds obtained from test fitting are in good agreement with the simulation results, with all relative errors less than 8%. This study provides a theoretical basis and technical reference for the engineering design of medium and high-power rim-driven thrusters as well as the matching optimization of AUV-thruster systems.