Hydrodynamic resistance calculation and structural optimization of hull cleaning robot

Abstract Hull-cleaning robots play an increasingly important role in ensuring the safety and efficiency of ship navigation. This paper researches underwater resistance calculation and related aspects. Firstly, the mathematical and turbulence models required for robot simulation are determined. In this paper, the RNG k-ε model is proposed as the turbulence model for simulation. This model not only increases the time-averaged strain rate E ij which reflects the mainstream, the flow, and spatial variation of fluid, and effectively improves the calculation accuracy, but also considers the turbulence problem near the wall and improves the reliability of analyzing low Reynolds number turbulence. The resistance of the robot at different flow rates is calculated using Fluent software. According to the simulation results, the structure of the robot is optimized and the one-way resistance performance of the robot is improved.