Design of drag reduction and water pressure resistant skin layer of underwater vehicle based on mechanical metamaterials

Abstract Developing high-speed and large working depth underwater vehicles has gradually become a hot topic. Various drag-reduction skins and water pressure-resistant structures have been proposed to reduce surface resistance interference and increase the working water depth. Mechanical metamaterials can exhibit extraordinary static mechanical and quasi-static mechanical properties. It provides possibilities for achieving excellent static water pressure resistance and drag reduction simultaneously. This paper proposed an underwater elastic skin based on metamaterials and drag-reducing grooves. A composite functional skin was obtained by combining the negative Poisson’s ratio design of metamaterials with the V-groove drag reduction design. Analysis based on the COMSOL finite element simulation shows that lower flow resistance during high-speed and low-speed navigation and stronger pressure resistance can be achieved simultaneously. By comparing different drag reduction models, the drag reduction characteristics of the composite skin are analyzed. The results provide new ideas for the design of thin-layer multifunctional integrated underwater skins for UUV.