Evaluation of the Water Entry Impact of an Air-Launched AUV

Air-Launched Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AL-AUVS), deployable from an aircraft, provide a new operational alternative to traditional ship-based AUV transport and deployment. This study explores gliding AL-AUVs, that reduce impact forces upon water entry through aerodynamic wings. Experimental investigations using scaled AUV models demonstrated that the impact acceleration applied to the vehicle, when entering the water at terminal velocity without wings, remains within a safe range. Furthermore, the experimental conditions were successfully replicated using a particle based method, where the magnitude of the first acceleration peak closely matched the experimental results.