Abstract

Supercavitating vehicles can achieve very high speed but the hydrodynamic forces and the forces balance of which are different from common underwater vehicles, because the most surfaces of the vehicle are in cavity. Compared to a fully-wetted vehicle for which substantial lift is generated due to vortex shedding off the hull, a supercavitating vehicle is enveloped by gas cavity and thus the lift is provided by control surface deflections of the cavitator and fins, as well as planing force between the vehicle and the cavity. In this paper, a proper dynamic model of the vehicle for pitch was presented by analyzing and studying hydrodynamic forces on the vehicle. Then robust pole allocation methodology was used to design the controller, and it got good dynamic stability. It provided a necessary theoretical dependence for farther studying the dynamic control problem of supercavitating vehicles.

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