Investigation of the efficiency of side thrusters of autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles

The paper represented the study of the efficiency of side thrusters (ST) on the marching modes of motion of an autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicle (AUV). Literature data on low efficiency of thrusters without specify-ing the location of thrusters are given. Calculations of AUV streamline with a horizontal ST operating for two vari-ants of location are carried out. It is shown that the efficiency of the front and rear ST depends differently on the speed of the onrushing flow, and at high speeds the efficiency of the rear ST can even increase relative to the sta-tionary state of the AUV. Calculations of the dynamics of the controlled motion of an AUV with depth and trim con-trol by means of only thrusters and by means of ST have been carried out. It has been convincingly shown that the use of ST in marching modes is not reasonable.