Water jet thruster, which is a marine system that creates a jet of water for propulsion, has several advantages such as low noise, good anti-cavitation characteristics and maneuvering characteristics. The reaction thrust characteristics of water jet for conical nozzles directly determine the speed of autonomous underwater vehicles （AUV）. Theoretical, numerical and experimental studies have been, carried out to investigate the effects of the nozzle geometries as well as inlet conditions on the reaction thrust of water jet in this paper. The experimental results show that： 1） the reaction thrust is proportional to inlet pressure, the square of flow rate and 2/3 power exponent of input power; 2） the diameter of cylinder column for conical nozzle has great influence on the reaction thrust characteristics; 3） the best values of the half cone angle and the cylinder column length exist to make the reaction thrust coefficient to reach the maximum under the same inlet conditions. Those provide a basis for nozzles design and have significant value, especially for developing high performance and efficiency water jet propulsion unit.
Simulation investigation on fluid characteristics of the water hydraulic jet pipe servo valve （WHJPSV） is conducted through a commercial computational fluid dynamics （CFD） software package FLUENT. In particular, the factors to fluid characteristics of WHJPSV are addressed, which include diameter combination of jet pipe and receiver pipe, jet pipe nozzle clearance, angle between two jet receiver pipes and deflection angle of the jet pipe. It is concluded from the results that： （i） Structural parameters have great influences on fluid characteristics of WHJPSV, when d1 = d2 = 0.3 mm, α= 45 , b = 0.5 mm, and the simulation exhibits better fluid characteristics; （ii） The magnitude of the recovery pressure and flow velocity increase almost linearly with the deflection angle of jet pipe. The research work in this paper is important for determining and optimizing the structural parameters of the jet pipe and jet receiver. The relevant conclusions could be extended to the study of other water hydraulic servo control components.
