Numerical Analysis of the Thrust Characteristics of Propulsion Systems of Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle

Small- and medium-sized compact hybrid remotely operated vehicles (HROVs) are particularly sensitive to force control, and research on the interaction of their propulsion system is key and essential to their development. In this paper, the effects of the relative position to the cabin, ambient velocity and rotational speed of adjacent thrusters on the thrust characteristics of a propulsion system are analyzed. The influence of the propulsion system at high flow velocity is obviously different from that in static water. At high flow velocity, different rotational speeds of adjacent thrusters can result in thrust variation of more than 18% for the observed thrusters, compared to no rotation of adjacent thrusters. In Group 1 (with larger space), the operating thrusters arranged perpendicular to the flow and along the flow can affect the thrust change by 19.87% and 19.27%, respectively. In Group 2 (with smaller space), those are 12.71% and 17.28%, respectively. An explanation is given for the mechanism of the influence of adjacent thrusters at different positions.