SURFACE SHIP & SUBMARINE HULL MECHANICAL & ELECTRICAL (HM&E)
Abstract
Technology programs focused on providing technologically superior warfighting capabilities at reduced total ownership costs for surface and subsurface platforms through investments in applied research and advanced technology development of programs in: a) Advanced Naval Power, b) hydrodynamics, c) structures, d) autonomy for unmanned surface vehicles (USV), and e) platform survivability. This element also includes the National Naval Responsibility in Naval Engineering (NNR-NE). The NNR-NE supports early applied research in the areas of propulsion, platform structures, hydrodynamics, automation control and system engineering, design tools, naval power systems and ensuring a strong and healthy academic infrastructure. Specific research themes are: Advanced Naval Power Systems Technology: Efforts address electrical and auxiliary system and component technology to dramatically improve energy and power density, operating efficiency, and recoverability from casualties. A major investment focus is providing the power and energy required for directed energy weapons on current and future surface combatants. Advanced Naval Power efforts include: developing technologies for high-power, cyber-secured energy networks, distribution and control of power, providing warfighting capability with more energy efficient systems; mitigate adverse impacts of alternative fuel on Naval platforms and equipment; and utilizing the Electric Ship Research and Development Consortium (ESRDC) efforts to develop modeling and simulation tools to provide critical design and operational capabilities for the all-electric ship program, accelerate development and demonstration of technologies, reduce risk of new technology insertion, and address the national shortage of electrical power engineers. Develop new machinery integration concepts. Develop simulation based Verification, Validation and Accreditation (VV&A) methods and technologies. Contribute to system reconfiguration. Design a ship electrical system architecture based on a main bus that distributes "rough" Direct Current (DC) power throughout the ship at nominally 10 KV. Development of macro- and atomic-scale multi-physics models is being pursued to enhance understanding of materials processing and performance, energy conversion mechanisms, cyber-physical energy concepts, and power management. System-level studies focus on the scalability and reliability of component technologies. Another thrust is the development of tools to model heat transfer at multiple length scales allowing for simulation of heat flow through the ship in order to evaluate the impact of power conversion electronics, sensors, and weapons on the overall thermal balance of the vessel. Advanced Sea Platform Technology: Hydrodynamics: Critical platform design for surface ships hydrodynamics that is focused on the theory, computation, and lab and at-sea experimentation to develop understanding and prediction capabilities for all hydrodynamic phenomena associated with surface ships and small craft, their effects on vessel performance, and concepts for modification. Propulsor hydrodynamics is focused on understanding the physics of flow around propulsors and their interactions to improve propulsor performance, mobility, efficiency, and affordability, as well as prediction and control of various types of cavitation on propulsors and appendages. This also includes predictive capability of cavitation inception, thrust breakdown, and erosion phenomenon and scaling laws. Technology efforts in the area of Subsurface Hydrodynamics include identifying, understanding, predicting, and controlling flow physics, as well as turbulence and stratified wakes. This is further applied to Subsurface Maneuvering Technologies, and understanding the Dynamics of Interacting Platforms. Additionally hydrodynamic technologies focused on the signature aspects of the hull-propulsor interaction and maneuvering. Platform Structures: Focused on time-varying, structural reliability analysis and prediction for a ship structural system with uncertainty quantification and propagation. Specific topics include novel structural configurations across composite and metallic materials and prediction methods for advanced global hull strength, local panel and component strength, fatigue and fracture strength, and seaway loads and load effects for high-speed/high-performance ships and vessels. Hull life assurance addresses development of new structural system approaches for surface ships and submarines, including the management of weapons effects to control structural damage and the improvement of structural materials. Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV): Autonomy for USVs and related mission functions aligned with Naval S&T strategic focus on autonomy and unmanned vehicles. Unmanned Sea Surface Vehicle (USSV) applied research includes short-term motion forecasting for recovery of USSVs on a host ship in higher sea states and determination of slamming loads on high-speed planing hulls for structural weight reduction Distributed intelligence for automated survivability addresses both the basic technology of automating machinery control systems, as well as, distributed control of systems utilizing autonomy for mission context based reconfiguration. Sea Platform Survivability Technology: Aligned with survivability S&T strategic focus area, research investigates electromagnetic (EM) sources (including major ferro and non-ferromagnetic sources, eddy currents, and Corrosion Related Magnetic Fields (CRM)) that are associated with naval platforms. Develop understanding of EM field propagation relationships and analysis aids, and technologies to predict the electromagnetic properties of a naval platform. Advance physics based understanding of platform acoustics. Discover and develop algorithms and methods that will enable the development of improved design, analysis, and prediction tools for enhanced acoustic performance. Understand, design and develop optical and acoustic metamaterials to control light and sound propagation over a large frequency range. New architectures to overcome challenges associated with loss, bandwidth, and scalability are being explored. Design and develop models, algorithms, and integrated development environments for simulation and control of complex, interdependent, distributed shipboard machinery systems to enable integrated, autonomous operation and reconfiguration of shipboard machinery systems. Efforts also include: signature reduction, hull life assurance, hydromechanics, distributed control for automated survivability (includes damage control), and advanced naval power systems. Signature reduction addresses electromagnetic, infrared, structural acoustics and acoustic signature tailoring, both topside and underwater. Develop and advance time critical stealth technologies for SSBN and SSN programs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2020
- Source ID
- d43bb36ee5494e3b1002400947617b7e