Numerical analysis of the influence of the lower hull angle of a round skirtless air cushion vehicle

Abstract

Abstract Ever since 1716, when the first concept of building a vehicle to operate with an air cushion was presented, the world remained fascinated by this concept. This article presents a study on important parameters of the flow into the inner cavity of a simple plenum hull, the first configuration of the air cushion vehicle. In order to achieve this, six constructive models were chosen, the only major difference being the angle of inclination at the bottom of the hull. The paper presents the specific mathematical model adapted for this type of configuration, the imposed constructive dimensions, the steps of numerical analysis and results. An important step of this analysis is the estimation of the total weight of each prototype according to the lower hull angle. The estimate was performed using Catia software and the actual analysis was completed using Matlab.