3-D simulation of a two-part underwater towed system

A fully three dimensional model of a two-part underwater towed system is studied. In the model, the governing equations of cables are established based on Ablow and Schechter's method, The boundary conditions for the two-part underwater towed system are derived. The six-degree-of-freedom equations of motion for submarine simulations are adopted to estimate the hydrodynamic performance of a towed vehicle The established governing equations for the system are then solved using a centered finite difference method, In this paper several algorithms are used to solve this special form of finite difference equations. The results in this paper indicate that the two-part underwater towed system improves the dynamic behavior of the towed vehicle and is an easy way to decouple the towing ship motion from the towed vehicle, Because the model uses an implicit time integration, it is stable for large time steps and is an effective algorithm for simulation of a large-scale towed system.