A hydrodynamic model of a two-part underwater towed system

A three-dimensional model of a two-part underwater towed system is studied. In the model, the governing equations of cables are established based on t he Ablow and Schechter method. The boundary conditions for the two-part und erwater towed system are derived. The six-degrees-of-freedom equations of m otion for submarine simulations are adopted to predict the hydrodynamic per formance of a towed vehicle. The established governing equations for the sy stem are then solved using a central finite difference method. In this pape r several algorithms are used to solve this special form of finite differen ce equations. The results in this paper indicate that the two-part underwat er towed system improves the dynamic behavior of the towed vehicle and is a n easy way to decouple the towing ship motion from the towed vehicle. Becau se the model uses an implicit time integration, it is stable for large time steps and is an effective algorithm for simulation of a large-scale underw ater rowed system. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.