1. Composite Pressure Hulls for Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles
T. James Osse, University of Washington, Box 355351, Seattle, WA 98195-5351
Timothy J. Lee, The Boeing Co, Box 16858, Philadelphia, PA 19142-0858
Abstract
A program to extend the operatingdepth of Sea glider from 1000 m
to 6000 m began in 2002 at the University of Washington. The Deep
glider program used carbon fiber composites for the pressure hull
because of their ability to achieve weight to displacement ratios of less
than 0.5. Advanced fabrication technology, more common in the
aerospace industry, allowed the pressure hull to be identical to the shape
of the Sea glider AUV so that many of the Sea glidercomponents could
be used on Deep glider. In this paper, we describe the development of
the carbon fiber/epoxy pressure hull, including material characterization,
the design of the interlaminar shear control sleeve, and pressure testing
of six pressure vessels. Three of these hulls used a unique tapering
diameter, tapering wall thickness construction. A more complete
description of the Deep gliderprogram is provided in a companion paper.
By Dinesh Raj Goud
Link:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4449124