Hydrodynamic investigations on the performance of an underwater remote operated vehicle under the wave using OpenFOAM

ABSTRACT

Underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is used to monitor the subsea-surface mooring and piping lines. In this study, the hydrodynamic characteristics of a remote-operated vehicle are analysed using an open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. In the first CFD simulation set, the ROV is tested at surge velocity in the water current flow and the pressure coefficient is validated against the experimental measurements. In the second CFD simulation set, a numerical wave tank is proposed to study two cases with ROV and pipe under the action of surface waves after verification with the literature. Coefficients of lift and drag of ROV are compared and the streamlines are visualised. Substantial reduction of velocity ratio with normalised pressure difference and higher frequency of vortex shedding are observed in the case of ROV with pipe against ROV alone. From this study, the time history of velocity near ROV is found to be essential during the operation.

KEYWORDS:

• Underwater ROV
• computational fluid dynamics
• flow field
• pipe inspection
• surface wave interaction

Data availability statement

All the data in this study are obtained using OpenFOAM software. The data will be made available via correspondence as per the request by an email.

Nomenclature
AUV	=	Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
A	=	Area
CFD	=	Computational Fluid Dynamics
C	=	Coefficient
D	=	Drag force
I	=	Intensity
k	=	Turbulence kinetic energy
L	=	Lift force
P	=	Pressure
ROV	=	Remote-Operated Underwater Vehicle
t	=	time
u, V	=	velocity (component)
WG	=	Water gauge (water level indicator sensor)

Subscripts
d	=	drag
l	=	lift
p	=	pressure
ref	=	reference

Symbols
α	=	Volume fraction
ρ	=	density of fluid
ω	=	turbulence specific dissipation rate

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article. However, author would like to acknowledge Mr. M. Manjunatha and Mr. P. Vivek Ghodeswar for the experimental arrangement and validation in this study.