System Design of Undersea Vehicles with Multiple Sources of Uncertainty

Benanzer, Todd W. Ph.D. College of Engineering and Computer Science, Wright State University, 2008. System Design of Undersea Vehicles with Multiple Sources of Uncertainty. The work performed investigates the system design and optimization of an undersea vehicle. The system design is driven by the available components, the missions the vehicle is required to perform, and the performance the system configuration yields. The system design consists of three design modules: path planning, component selection and sizing, and structural analysis. The path planning module uses a novel application of the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm named Path Planning by Additive Freedom. Additionally, the unknown aspects of the mission space through which the path propagates are dealt with using an uncertainty quantification method known as Evidence Theory. Component selection and sizing are performed using the naval design tool SNARC. This program uses a branch and bound technique called the A* algorithm to choose the components that should be used in the system and what size they should be according to the mission profiles provided by the path. The structural analysis is performed using the ABAQUS finite element program to calculate the structural reliability of the system. This module uses the structure sizing data, as well as the hydrodynamic and hydrostatic forces from the mission profile, to calculate the system’s reliability with respect to a buckling failure, the most common structural failure in undersea vehicles.