Translational added mass of axisymmetric underwater vehicles with forward speed using computational fluid dynamics

This paper presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach to the calculation of translational added mass coefficient of axisymmetric underwater bodies in both longitudinal and transverse directions. The proposed method involves CFD simulations of accelerated as well as uniform flows past axisymmetric bodies based on Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations and makes use of the results of these simulations to obtain the inertia force acting on a body as a function of time. The translational added mass can be obtained from this inertia force history. Validation of the methodology is presented for the benchmark case of accelerated flow past sphere and infinitely long circular cylinder in cross-flow for which analytical solutions of the added mass problem are well known.