LUNA INNOVATIONS INCORPORATED — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N201-026

Description

Components external to submarine pressure hulls, such as Underwater Unmanned Vehicles (UUVs) will play an important role in current and future Navy operations.  When submerged, these external volumes (EVs) must sustain hydrostatic pressures to prevent catastrophic collapse that would destroy the component and also result in the release of shock waves capable of severely damaging or destroying nearby assets.  The use of composite materials in EVs offers several benefits, such as high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance, design flexibility, and signature reduction.  However, there is some risk to composite use due to the presence of material flaws and inconsistencies from the manufacturing process that can lead to hydrostatic pressure collapse.  Luna Innovations will develop an intimate understanding of the relationship between composite manufacturing variables and hydrostatic pressure collapse performance via manufacturing and evaluation of subcomponents, modeling, and coupon testing.  This information will be used to establish design criteria for the optimization of composite external volumes with minimized weight and risk of failure.