Coupled multibody dynamics and computational fluid dynamics approach for amphibious vehicles in the surf zone

A methodology for the simulation of amphibious craft transitioning between land and marine modes in the surf zone is presented. Tight coupling of existing solvers for multibody and fluid dynamics is described, along with new features developed for the combined solver. Controllers are implemented to simulate autonomous operations of the vehicle. A laboratory model of an amphibious vehicle is described, along with its numerical model. Two examples of an autonomous amphibious vehicle operation in a surf zone are presented, including a validation case against experimental results and a case with breaking waves in an irregular terrain surf zone to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed coupled CFD-MBD approach. •Tight coupling of computational fluid dynamics and multibody dynamics solvers.•Overset technology improvements for contact problems between vehicle and substrate.•Simulation of a complex maneuver for an amphibious vehicle in a highly dynamic environment.