MAINSTREAM ENGINEERING CORP — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: N20A-T008

Description

Current Zumwalt Class destroyers (DDG 1000) sea chest openings are unique because they must be flush to the hull, limiting implementation of common sea chest designs (e.g., bubble shields or raised inlets). This design results in the ingestion of higher amounts of ice, debris, and air, resulting in increased maintenance costs, potential pump failure, and degraded overall cooling performance. The Navy desires a drop-in addition to the sea chest system on the DDG 1000 destroyers that will mitigate seawater system air and debris internally. Mainstream proposes to develop a dual stage integrated cyclone (DSIC) that will integrate directly into a vessel’s existing sea chest water management system (SCWMS) for efficient separation of ice, debris, and air prior to entering the vessel’s seawater cooling system. Mainstream will partner with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), a highly regarding university with a leading Oceanography and Ocean Engineering program equipped with state-of-the-air static and dynamic seawater test facilities at Port Canaveral, two research boats, and active research grants with the Office of Naval Research and the shipping and coatings industries. FIT will support the Phase I base with CFD modeling as well as bench-scale testing in the Phase I option.