Redesigning Anti-fouling and Fouling Release coatings for optically clear and/or transparent befouling control coatings on underwater surfaces.
Abstract
Ocean exploration has been a growing area of the marine industry for many defense, commercial and research applications. Autonomousunderwater vehicles (AUVs), remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), microscopes, sensors, sub-sea structures, monitoring and surveying devices all suffer from the negative impact of biofouling. Specially for applications which require signal transmission and optical transparency. Currently there are little to no solutions to control fouling growth on windows and lenses of these vessels and equipment. One customer who has reach out to AST said that they are currently replacing the glass lens of their underwater microscope on regular basis using divers which is costly and not ideal. Defense and commercial customers have seen growing use of AUVs and ROVs for protecting critical infrastructure, environment assessment, surveillance, search and rescue operations, deep water survey and inspections. Without adequate biofouling control measures on their critical surfaces, the equipment can fail during operation or shorten their mission leading to loss of resources, money and time.The proposed project will focus on redesigning antifouling and fouling release coatings for optically clear or transparent surfaces of AUVs, ROVs, microscopes, sub-sea structures and other underwater equipment. We will reformulate the Sherwin Williams SEAVOYAGE, Navy qualified copper free ablative antifouling paint to produce an optically clear or transparent version. ASTs SLIPS SeaClear transparent fouling release coating will be modified to incorporate amphiphilic surface active polymers (SAPs) to further enhance the biofouling performance while maintaining optical clarity and transparency. We will also develop suitable adhesion strategies for newly developed top-coats, so that they can be well secured on target substrates (i.e. glass, polycarbonate and polyacrylic). The coating samples will be well characterized for their optical properties, hydrostatic pressure stability, general coating robustness. Biofouling performance will be evaluated using laboratory assays and ocean field testing to identify promising formulations. We hope the outcome of this project, an optically clear or transparent coating, willprovide biofouling control leading to high mission success rates, extend the service life, and improve the capabilities of the underwater vehicles and equipment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 05, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112197
Entities
People
- Teluka Galhenage
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy