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RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New Guy from down under needs help



I’m just learning stuff here so don’t make the mistake of thinking I know what I am talking about!

 

Sandwich GFRP construction and repair is something which I have some experience with in aircraft and sailplane construction.  The use of carbon fiber with foam core is commonplace [actually ‘the norm’ nowadays] as structurally the foam core gives a greater strength in bending loads relative to total weight, the trouble is that in straight [90 degree impact] compressive loads the core can easily be damaged which then completely destroys the structural integrity of that area necessitating a relatively complex repair process.  I cant see that type of foam core GFRP construction being a great choice in a Psub pressure hull as the outer layers or glass/carbon will need to be thick enough to protect the foam core from compressive failure, both impact and normal operating pressures.

 

In fact the more I think of it the foam core becomes more of a liability than a benefit.  You would almost certainly need the inner and outer structural GFRP layers to be both capable of sustaining operating depth pressure + safety reserves, and effectively have a double hull construction without the benefit of a double pressure hulled sub?

 

So I recon the use of a single thick GFRP hull is the way to go on this project, just need to decide if the layups need to be vacuum bagged or not.  I am unsure here as in aircraft construction vacuum bagging is used to get the uniform weight/strength ratio by minimum resin saturation, whereas a sub hull probably doesn’t need to be that light weight so excess resin may well be beneficial providing its not degrading hull strength [which it might do] ????

 

Gonna need to build a mother of an autoclave !!!…… and another thought, which perhaps I shouldn’t really voice, so apologies in advance on this one.  If the project to build a carbon hulled sub fails at any point in its development, then a few tons of scrap carbon fiber will be helava more problematical to dispose of than a few [more] tons of carbon steel?

 

Onward and upwards!! …. Or should that be “forwards and deeper”, being what this is a  Psub forum??

 

Look forward to seeing some prototype design posts.

 

Gordon

 

 

 


From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Alan James
Sent: 14 March 2010 18:22
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New Guy from down under needs help

 

Hi Stewart,

Thats a lot of material to get through. Thanks for that, I'll have a good look later on.

I considered sandwich construction a year back & initially was enthusiastic about

the strength of the material.

I was looking at an Australian brand of syntactic foam as my core; this could be shaped with heat

& was used for sub - marine applications.

In a sandwich you are going a lot thicker than steel to get the same strength, & hence more displacement

& weight to the sub. You also have a thinner outer shell of fibreglass wich makes it less impact

resistant. The through hulls are a lot more difficult to do & create places of stress. You have to grind out the

core material inside the hole & replace with epoxy.

If there's any incursion of water into the core layer you can rot from the inside & be oblivious to whats going on.

This stuff isn't such a worry in a boat, but could be catastophic in a submarine.

Also as a home builder, having a first attempt at making a foam core structure & trusting my life with it didn't

seem a smart option. The outer & inner layers of fiberglass being a lot thinner than just one thick section of

fiberglass would require a lot more accuracy in the lay up. Fiberglass being anisotrophic & requiring multidirectional

layers to get an even strength resistance would I imagine be easier to acheive in a thicker section.

Regards Alan

 

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2010 5:16 PM

Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New Guy from down under needs help

 

Hi les! I had a deeper google into the subject… and here is some more info, ill put the most relevant info first, a lot are books which you would have to source from a library or purchase possibly…

 

 

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15062369 - Optimum design of filament-wound multilayer-sandwich submersible pressure hulls

 

Submersible pressure hulls with fiber-reinforced multilayer-sandwich constructions have been developed in recent years as substitutes for classical metallic ring-stiffened pressure hulls. This study aims to optimize the design of filament-wound multilayer-sandwich submersible pressure hulls, taking into consideration the shell buckling strength constraint, the angle-ply laminated facing failure strength constraint and the low-density isotropic core yielding strength constraint under hydrostatic pressure using the hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA). The thickness of the facing, the thickness of the core layer, the orientation angle of the fibers in the facings and the shear modulus of the core material are taken as design variables. A sensitivity analysis is performed to study the effects of the operational depths and the hull shell geometry parameter, the length-to-diameter ratio (L/D), on the optimal design of filament-wound multilayer-sandwich submersible pressure hulls with graphite/epoxy, glass/epoxy and boron/epoxy composite facings. The results reveal that the optimal weight of various sandwich pressure hulls increases linearly with the operational depth, but it is almost unchanged as the geometry paramter. Furthermore, Graphite/Epoxy is the best choice for the material of the facings in a light-weight design. With reference to wall design, Boron/Epoxy is the best choice for the material of the facing at shallow depths, but Graphite/Epoxy is the best choice at extreme depths. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for designers of underwater vehicles.

 

Ocean engineering   ISSN 0029-8018   CODEN OCENBQ 

 

http://www..springerlink.com/content/l8350n41762u8468/ - Optimal Design of Filament-Wound Composite Pressure Vessels

 

In this paper, the effect of the width of winding band on the stability of winding pattern is studied. Some key design variables are calculated to optimize the dome geometry. The influence of winding process parameters on the slippage tendency is also considered.

 

http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/sme/composites/marine.htm - Composite Materials and Structures for the Marine Environment. (not directly submarine related, mostly composites use in ships)

 

 

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=174497&page=1 – A forum about Submarine engineering with some very good comments…

 

 “Carbon fiber is just that, a fiber.  It's already very strong in tension.  Like any fiber, it has little strength in compression, because the fibers are long and thin.”

 

“Now, as for making a submarine hull out of carbon fiber _composite_, yes, it's possible.  It may not be the best material for the job.  It's certainly not the cheapest.”

 

“Spend some time looking through ASME III (Unfired Pressure Vessels) for vessels under external pressure.  And keep in mind that if you intend to operate at 100 ft (~45 psi) that you'll want a hefty margin against any kind of pressure boundary buckling failure.  Think in terms of emergency recovery time from a depth overshoot if you experience horizontal control plane malfunction while descending at some speed and down angle when nearly at your maximum operating depth.”

 

“also look under ASME PVHO (Human occupancy)  & Sec. X {fiber reinforced plastic) pressure vessel codes”

 

 

http://www.deepflight..com/super_falcon.pdf - A composite 2 person sub…looks like it might be pretty fast under water… like a jet fighter! J

http://machinedesign.com/article/flying-underwater-0424 - another article about the super falcon

http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/lr5/ - LR5 Submersible Submarine Rescue Vessel which has a composite pressure hull

 

 

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=309701 – A forum discussing the physics behind pressure rating of pressure vessels under compressive forces..

 

You haven't calculated buckling yet; any buckling would destroy the structure. Think of the ruler. What you've calculated is non-buckling compression.

Buckling theory is relatively advanced, doubly so for 3-D structures. I haven't worked in this area and can't recommend a reference. You might take a look at Jones' Buckling of Bars, Plates, and Shells, some of which is available on Google Books, to get an idea of the theory.”

 

 

http://www..physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=24570 – Physics forum… “A circular window with radius 25 cm in a submarine can withstand a maximum force of 1.23E6 N. If the interior of the submarine is maintained at a pressure of 1 atm, approximately how deep the submarine can dive without rupturing the window? (You can assume sea water density of 1000 kg/m3.)”

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=272974 – And another physics question that is submarine and pressure related J

 

http://www.swri.org/3pubs/brochure/d18/StrucAnalysis/Structural.pdf - A company that does pressure testing of submersibles in san Antonio texas! “SwRI has the capability to perform in-house or field testing services. The staff has performed stress analysis test services for commercial and government clients in many areas including boilers, pressure vessels, submersibles, diving systems, composite housings, titanium instrument housings etc”

 

http://www.defencetalk.com/forums/navy-maritime/cfrp-submarine-hull-material-5953/ - US Navy discussion about composite hull’s… Carbon fibre Reinforced plastics

 

 

 

http://kkava.com/sub/ - Construction of a composite UUAV (unmanned underwater autonomous vehicle) (lots of photo’s of the molding process etc)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Les & Anna
Sent: Saturday, 13 March 2010 4:22 PM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New Guy from down under needs help

 

Thank you Stewart for your reply again I say to you as I did to Alan a New Zealander who also answered my email, sorry for the delayed reply been distracted for a while.

Yes it is the dream but as they say,  not to dream is to die ,at least on the inside anyway.

Respect and appreciate your comments and have taken them on board. However as weight is a major concern for my requirements I will still have that as my major criteria if possible.

 

By the way the sub pressure testing requirements bothers me a little ..can you direct me where I might obtain some written data on this.

I am all for maximum safety it is the major precursor to all my design.........but I have incorporated at least three back up systems for preventing slipping any deeper than 300 feet, including auto surfacing beyond 320 feet as a safety factor. With this on board the 3 times pressure factor seems over engineered.This I would consider precludes a three times safety factor

 

By the way I think I read in the Stachiw book a seven times factor for acrylic domes and windows?

Now my logic indicates to me that either they should be both the same either way because the lesser will fail anyway so the maximum is obsolete???

 

Appreciate the links and will follow up accordingly ...drat, more reading and learning ..this sub stuffs a full house isn't it?

Thanks again

Cheers

Les

PS   The reply from Alan James in N.Z .was interesting, you may be interested to read...don't know if you also received it? (just new at this sharing system)

PPS By the way where are you?, I am in Adelaide S.A.

 

 

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 7:23 PM

Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New Guy from down under needs help

 

 

Hi Les! Greetings from a fellow aussie J A light weight sub is every person’s dream… But as you can probably tell it hasn’t been done much before and to build a composite submarine in Australia is going to be very very expensive if not impossible, you need an autoclave and plug big enough to fit your sub in, or you build it out of smaller sections and join them, which causes other problems.

 

 Also your talking about wanting to go to a maximum of 300 feet right? But you have to over build your sub to ensure it is strong enough! Someone correct me if im wrong but I thought most sub’s were pressure tested to 3 times their expected max operating depth as part of their certification????

 

Also there is only one mode of failure with a composite pressure vessel… and I would imagine with 150psi pressing in from around you wouldn’t get much warning if something was wrong with it other than a pop or crack and then nothing… because you would be dead…

 

Here are some links I found, The military and universities have been toying with composite sub parts and hulls but I think for now your best bet would be to stick with steel or aluminum.. Composite air and hydrogen tanks sound/look like a good candidate but I don’t think I would trust their reliability, and pressure from the inside is different to pressure pressing in from the outside, Most of the carbon/Kevlar tanks are spun formed over a mold/plug which is then heated and pressure is put on..

 

http://www.ericgreeneassociates.com/images/History_of_Submarine_Composites.pdf - History of Submarine Composites

 

http://www.bac.net.au/submarine.html - An australian company that makes composite parts for the Collins class submarines though they are not pressure vessel’s..

http://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/article/20094/Composites-proved-for-submarine-hulls-.aspx - Pressure testing of an experimental composite submarine hull at the University of Portsmouth has validated finite element analysis (FEA) models it had created

http://composite.about.com/library/weekly/aa990217.htm - X-33 Composite Tank Problems, Complex shaped hydrogen tanks. Shows why composite materials are so difficult to use for mission critical applications and pressure vessels..

http://www.simona-de.com/static/sites/default/de/assets/Informationsmaterial/englisch/projektbericht_e/PB_16_engl._02_09_04-FINAL-.pdf - This document has some good pictures showing how large tanks are spun on a form..

http://www.ctd-materials.com/products/tanks.htm - Company that manufactures small composite pressure vessels, also lots of pictures which give you an idea…

http://www.pentairwatertreatment.com/PentairFiles/Pentair%20Water%20Treatment/Literature/Composite%20Tank%20Sell%20Sheet%2042575.pdf – Composite pressure vessels, some rated to 150psi

An example of one of their largest tanks…

Opening : 16" 6”

operating pressure : 150psi/10.34bar   

Height : 3695.7mm

Diameter : 1638.3

Capacity: 6057 Litres

Weight:  634kg

 

 

 

 

 

 


From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Les & Anna
Sent: Wednesday, 24 February 2010 5:58 PM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] New Guy from down under needs help

 

HI,

My name is Les, in Australia, I joined psubs almost a year ago,after much much reading, and learning, an experience I am sure that you are all aware, I do have a couple of questions that some-one may be able to assist me with.

My aim is a specialized maximum depth 300feet 1atm sub, of which weight is most critical, therefore I am considering the exotics such as carbon fibre and Kevlar .

  1. Any experienced knowledge on these two materials re this pressure 150psi  that anyone can give me would be most appreciated.

  2. Any information regarding acrylic bubbles or more precise half bubble or dome 4 feet (1200mm) to 6 feet (1800mm)diameter for this depth and pressure, would also be

     of  assistance.

Looking forward to learning more

Cheers

Les