Model and Control Validation of High Speed Supercavitating Vehicles

This article presents a hybrid validation technique to test mathematical models and control systems for a High Speed Supercavitating Vehicle HSSV. The test method combines simulation of the vehicle motion, real-time experimental measurements of hydrodynamic forces acting at the vehicle wetted areas, and vehicle flight computer to evaluate the HSSV performance subject to steady and unsteady flows. The proposed validation platform is deployed in the high speed water tunnel located at the University of Minnesota Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory SAFL. The supercavitating test vehicle, operated with ventilation, consists of an actuated disk cavitator and two actuated lateral wedge fins. The model of the vehicle motion, used to develop the validation platform and design HSSV controllers, is derived through experimental data obtained in the high speed water tunnel. An illustration is given on how the control system is able to track pitch angle reference commands and reject flow perturbations produced by an oscillating foil gust generator.