Journal of Engineering Research

Morphing underwater vehicle is a new type of adaptive underwater observation tool, which can realize the extreme task requirements of high-speed cruise and low-speed investigation. However, there are still technical challenges such as harsh environment, complex mechanism and poor sealing, and the research on the shape of underwater morphing robot is still insufficient. Therefore, this paper focuses on the model simulation and computational fluid dynamics of six typical fish bodies. Through the quantitative analysis of the pressure of each fish body, the simulation results show that the white shark body model is the optimal bionic shape under the high-speed environment, and the boxfish body model is the optimal bionic shape under the low-speed environment. The conclusion provides a theoretical reference for the design of the morphing underwater vehicle in different speed scenarios, and also provides a preliminary method reference for the morphing design of unmanned vehicle in the fields of aviation and marine.

Morphing underwater vehicle; Bionics; Computational fluid dynamics; Shape optimization