Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Fiberglass

[hylands@ibm.net (Jon Hylands)]

On Mon, 17 Jan 2000 08:38:25 -0600, "Greg Teiber" <wolfe19@megsinet.net>
wrote:

> I Never said I really liked concrete... Just that it would be a better choice than fiberglass.  I wouldn't even considder making a sub for my own personal use out of anything but steel.  I think the hull is someplace where we just can NOT cut corners.  On top of the fact with how thick you will need to make the fiberglass will lead to immensely thick layups, and probally many many many points of delamanation that you can't detect.  

The US Navy built an autonomous sub where the pressure hull is basically a
cylinder made from carbon fibre. The sub is rated to 20,000 feet.

http://www.nosc.mil/robots/undersea/auss/auss.html

(From the web page)

The AUSS vehicle is designed to operate as deep as 20,000 feet. It is 17
feet long, 31 inches in diameter, and weighs 2800 pounds. The center
section is a cylindrical graphite epoxy pressure hull with titanium
hemispherical ends. The hull provides the central structure and all its
buoyancy---no syntactic foam is used. The free-flooded forward and aft end
fairings and structure are of Spectra, a nearly buoyant composite. 

---------------

The cylindrical pressure hull of Deep Flight was also made from fiberglass,
and it is rated to 1000 metres.

Later,
Jon

--------------------------------------------------------------
   Jon Hylands      Jon@huv.com      http://www.huv.com/jon

  Project: Micro Seeker (Micro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)
           http://www.huv.com