LUNA LABS USA LLC — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: N23A-T010

Description

Marine fouling has always been a significant problem to manage. All the solutions have associated costs and additional maintenance. If the fouling is left untreated, fuel costs increase, and maneuverability is reduced. Eventually the ship must be docked and cleaned leading to availability and cleaning costs. Alternatively, the hull and other components below the water line can be coated or imbued with anti-fouling treatments. Active anti-fouling treatments slowly leech biocide to prevent fouling from occurring on the hull or component of the ship. The treatments must periodically be reapplied or an impregnated component must be replaced. Prevention of fouling on sonar domes is even more critical. If fouling builds up on the dome, then the function of the sonar is compromised. The sonar domes cannot be treated with conventional anti-fouling products because they are made of rubber. These sonar domes are imbued with tributyltin oxide (TBTO) during the manufacturing process and replaced when the TBTO is depleted. TBTO is an organotin compound with biocide properties that is a highly effective anti-fouling solution. However, after heavy use in the 1970s and 1980s organotin compounds were found to cause significant environmental damage. The chemicals build up in the environment and can cause deformations of many kinds of mollusks. The chemical was banned by the International Marine Organization in most circumstances. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) recently developed a non-destructive method to measure the amount of TBTO remaining in a rubber sonar dome. This technique provides data for a more detailed understanding of the remaining anti-fouling capability. Luna Labs proposes to develop a software application called Tributyltin Oxide Prediction Application (TOPA) to organize, store, and analyze the data. TOPA will provide an environment to organize data and display modeling results. TOPA will be able to record data entries for the TBTO measurements, environmental data, and available travel profile information. The users will be able to enter manufacturing details on the sonar domes and other data found to be useful during this project.  This will allow for the reduction of maintenance and potentially minimize harm to the environment through the reduction of TBTO use by determining when it may be suitable to reduce the amount of TBTO used in new construction sonar domes.