EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF A VARIABLE BUOYANCY SYSTEM FOR LOW DEPTH OPERATION

Abstract

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are used for the underwater survey both in coastal areas and deep sea without any human intervention during their operations. However, high energy consumptions required by the thrusters of the AUV’s adversely affect their performance such as range and endurance, etc. Herein, we have presented a novel design and development of a standalone variable buoyancy system for autonomous underwater vehicle and investigated the numerical and experimental analysis of Variable Buoyancy System (VBS) in standalone mode. Design idea is based upon the ‘Pump Driven Variable Buoyancy System (PDVBS)’ using ‘Water Hydraulic Variable Buoyancy System (WHVBS)’ method to control the buoyancy using a diaphragm type positive displacement pump (PDP) with capacity of the maximum buoyancy change rate of 4.5 kg/min. Detail experimental and simulation performance of the developed VBS has been investigated. Developed VBS is tested for maximum depth of 5 m and compared the performance of the experimental and simulation results. Presented results demonstrate that designed VBS is effective in changing buoyancy and controlling heave velocities and that will result to achieve the higher range and endurance and better performance in rescue/attack operations.