Automated Underwater Hull Maintenance Vehicle
Abstract
The maintenance and repair of the underwater hulls of Navy ships is expensive and labor intensive. While the introduction of effective epoxy anticorrosive paints and improved ablative antifouling paints have contributed to lengthening the time between dyrdocking, needed repair work is often not discovered until the ship is in drydock. In addition, the U.S. Navy has implemented cuprous oxide containing ablative antifouling paints to replace the standard antifouling paint (F 121) in the fleet. While the ablative antifouling paints are performing better than the F 121, some fouling of these paints has been reported. The process of underwater hull cleaning therefore has the potential to discharge unacceptable amounts of copper toxicant into Navy harbors. An underwater vehicle designed to perform a multitude of hull husbandry tasks is under development at the Annapolis Detachment of the Carderock Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center. This vehicle, which has its roots in remotely operated vehicle technology, would have the capability to self-navigate around the hull while recording data on hull systems, such as paint thickness, hull plate thickness, and cathodic protection potentials. These data would allow planners to determine how much ablative AF paint needs to be applied at the next docking to track the average hull thickness and to monitor the health of the impressed current cathodic protection system. This will reduce maintenance costs in drydock. In addition, the vehicle would have the capability to detect the presence of significant marine fouling, which increases hydrodynamic drag and fuel consumption.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA261504
Entities
People
- Dana C. Lynn
- Frank S. Halliwell
- Gerald S. Bohlander
- Gilbert Hageman
- Raymond H. Juers
Organizations
- Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division