Date of Award

5-8-2023

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

The Naval Undersea Warfare Center, or NUWC, has tasked Team 16 with analyzing a way to vertically launch a columnar payload underwater through the use of a phase change of a liquid to a gas. The system must harness the potential energy created from a pressurized gas being stored in a liquid phase then released to undergo a phase change to launch a payload through water.

NUWC has given Team 16 design requirements that include that the pressurized chamber must be less than 25% of the volume of the launch tube, the acceleration of the payload must be less than 8g at launch, and that the length of the payload must be seven to eight times the diameter of the payload. The team combined these design requirements with customer requirements to create the design specifications for this project. The team then undertook a design process which was a lengthy process of deriving over ninety possible designs. These designs were then narrowed down to three realistic contenders before a final design was chosen. Further testing was conducted to prove its viability. The final design chosen demonstrated the ability for a rupture disc to be deployed in a scenario outside its originally intended purpose.

During the spring semester, the system was scaled up by a factor of ten to operate at the pressures needed to store liquid carbon dioxide. The team designed the final launcher using carbon steel and aluminum. Generally speaking, the team used the proof of concept design but manufactured it using stronger materials. Dry ice was implemented to change phases and energize our payload by bursting an aluminum plate. A heating element was used to trigger the launch. The team elected to conduct underwater testing using only a submerged launch tube and left the remaining components outside of the closed system. The payload design was finalized and utilized a thread system so that items could be added/removed from the interior of the payload.

Comments

Team Name: Team Boom (Team 16)

Company Sponsor: NUWC

Sponsor Representative: Peter T. Phelps

Document Reference: URI-MCE-402-16H-2023

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