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Control Strategies For Supercavitating Vehicles

Anteon Corporation/ETC Division, 650 Ten Rod Road, Box 9B, North Kingstown, RI 02852, USA

David C Kring

Anteon Corporation/ETC Division, 650 Ten Rod Road, Box 9B, North Kingstown, RI 02852, USA

Ann W Stokes

Anteon Corporation/ETC Division, 650 Ten Rod Road, Box 9B, North Kingstown, RI 02852, USA

Neal E Fine

Anteon Corporation/ETC Division, 650 Ten Rod Road, Box 9B, North Kingstown, RI 02852, USA

James S Uhlman

Anteon Corporation/ETC Division, 650 Ten Rod Road, Box 9B, North Kingstown, RI 02852, USA

Supercavitating bodies can achieve very high speeds under water by virtue of reduced drag: with proper design, a cavitation bubble is generated at the nose and skin friction drag is drastically reduced. Depending on the type of supercavitating vehicle under consideration, the overall drag coefficient can be an order of magnitude less than that of a fully-wetted vehicle. However, as discussed in this article, control and maneuvering present special challenges. Strategies for meeting those challenges are also presented. The first section describes example vehicle configurations, and discusses the nonlinear forces acting on the cavitator, the fins (if present), and any portions of the hull that penetrate the cavity boundary during excursions from the fully-enveloped condition. The need for a bank-to-turn maneuvering strategy is also discussed. The second section describes simulation of vehicle flight, including system stability and system performance during execution of a banked turn. Without control, some vehicle configurations can be unstable, whereas a feedforward-feedback strategy can control some configurations over a range of turn rates.

Key Words: supercavitation • bank-to-turn • underwater • maneuvering

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