Lines design of underwater vehicle based on the optimization of hydrodynamic performance and energy consumption
Volume
77
Issue number
3
Article number
77308
Received
17 June 2025
Received in revised form
14 November 2025
Accepted
9 December 2025
Available online
30 December 2025
Authors
Kewei Li1, Weifeng Pan2, Weilin Luo2*
1 School of Advanced Manufacturing, Fuzhou University, Jinjiang 362251, China;
2 College of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China
Corresponding author email
Abstract
Collaborative optimization with relaxation factor is proposed for the lines design of an underwater vehicle. The hydrodynamic performances and energy consumption are considered in optimization framework. Hydrodynamic performances include the resistance, sway force and yaw moment. The efficient power of the propeller is selected to reflect the energy consumption. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) combined with Delphi method is used to allocate the weights of disciplines in the objective function at the top level. A gradient-based algorithm, sequential quadratic programming (SQP) in combination with an intelligent-based algorithm, the multi-island genetic algorithm (MIGA) is taken into account as the optimization algorithm. To increase the efficiency of optimization, an approximate model based on optimal Latin hypercube and radial basis function (RBF) is introduced to replace the time-consuming discipline analysis model. Full-appendage SUBOFF model is used to test the proposed optimization scheme. The optimization results show that the drag of the underwater vehicle is reduced by 2.05 %, the lateral force by 6.38 %, the yaw moment by 5.90 %, and the energy consumption by 2.15 %. Compared with a single algorithm (e.g., PSO), the proposed hybrid algorithm (MIGA-SQP) reduces the value of the comprehensive objective function by 2.5-4.8 %.The innovations of this paper are as follows: 1. The Delphi-AHP method is combined with the cooperative optimization of relaxation factors to improve the objectivity of weights; 2. An OLH-RBF surrogate model is constructed, which increases the CFD calculation efficiency by 4 times.
Keywords
Underwater vehicle, Collaborative optimization, Hydrodynamic performances, Analytic hierarchy process, Approximate model
