Page 16: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2020)

Insights

Thruster Technology

UV Tail Shape and Vehicle-

Propulsor Performance

Successful underwater vehicle (UV) performance is all about a properly functioning system. The components of a UV’s Vehicle-Propulsor-Drive system are not individual performers. They must be in harmony.

By Donald MacPherson, Technical Director of HydroComp, Inc.

ften overlooked during system but it is there.) This suction is a “nega- understood by designers. So to that end, design is the relationship be- tive-pressure” zone that pulls the blade there are four principal shape character- tween the propeller and the ve- forward on it forward-side (its “back”). istics that we want to identify during de-

Ohicle body, particularly how the What might be surprising is that for sign – 1) the slope of