Date of Award

2021

Degree Type

Capstone Project

Abstract

This paper is written by members of Team 3 as a part of the University of Rhode Island's Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Systems Engineering 2020/2021 Capstone course taught by Dr. Bahram Nassersharif.The team was tasked with researching and identifying an existing issue with wet-mate connectors, this project was sponsored by Raytheon Technologies and mentored by Tony Rafanelli and Steve Berube. To accomplish this team 3 did through research in patent searches and literature searches to get a better understanding of the problem at task. Using the knowledge team 3 learned through these searches each group member conducted 30 concept designs each for a total of 120 designs. The team then did a Pugh analysis to narrow down the design choices to a selection of three. A Quality Function Deployment analysis was then performed against companies that manufacture their own wet-mate connectors. This analysis brought the team to use a threaded sleeve design. The team set the application of this connector to power a camera drone that will be submerged in water for team ten. The water environment would be a nuclear site and radioactivity would have an e ect on the connector. This drone will have to run four brush less DC motors and power an Arduino control box.

At first the team had the idea of making a connector that used threads to fasten the connection together. On the outside diameter of the female receptor there were threads that were mated with a sleeve that has threads on its inside diameter. This sleeve would slide over the male receptor and hold the connection together while it is mated. There were also two small pin holes on the female receptor that will allow water to be pushed out when the connecting pins were mated. The connecting pins were going to be tipped with silicon that is press-fitted just right so that it seals those small pin holes so water can not reenter. After talking as a group the team deemed that this design would not be feasible to manufacture with the resources we had available.

The team came up with another design that could be used for the desired application. This new design was a housing that could protect a preexisting connection when submerged in water. The housing consisted of two identical pieces that were mated together. On the surface of the mate a cork-rubber gasket was used to ensure a watertight seal. The mate was fastened together with two quarter inch nuts and bolts on each side of the connector.

The team was able to successfully 3-D Print this design in the University of Rhode Island's Mechanical Engineering Capstone room. With this 3-D print the team was able to run a couple tests to prove that this design worked without any leaks or failures. The team was not able to manufacture a housing using copper material for a real test in a radioactive environment.

Comments

Sponsor: Raytheon Technologies; Tony Rafanelli and Steven Berube

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