N092-129 TITLE: Shipboard Shock & Vibration Environmental Monitoring and Recording

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Materials/Processes, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: DDG 1000 Program, PMS 500, ACAT 1

OBJECTIVE: Develop an approach to measure and record acceleration-, velocity- and displacement-time histories for mission essential or mission critical equipment subjected to shock and vibration events. This data would be used to verify and validate the equipment’s ability to perform its mission after a shock or vibration event and would also be used to validate future ship design tools.

DESCRIPTION: During a casualty scenario, equipment can experience extreme accelerations, velocities and/or displacements that can damage the equipment or reduce its life expectancy. Currently, the only time that equipment/components are instrumented to record experienced accelerations, velocities and displacements are during controlled and prescribed test events. The ability to gather data during real-life casualty scenarios (i.e. underwater explosion, shipboard vibration, impact, grounding, collision, slamming, high sea states, etc.) is not readily available without after-the-fact extrapolation and data analysis. As such, the ability to capture this data and the associated time histories in real-time for the range of experienced frequencies would allow the Navy to assess the ship or ship system’s capability to perform it’s mission(s) as well use the data in future ship design modeling and simulation tools to accurately reflect equipment behavior. While the Navy uses sensors onboard ship to monitor the performance of equipment and provide prognostic health data to facilitate maintenance evolutions, these sensors are not capable of capturing and recording data associated with shock and/or vibration events.

This topic seeks the development of a sensor technology and associated recording storage/distribution system that could be used adjacent to or on mission essential or mission critical equipment (i.e. launchers, missiles, guns, magazines, apertures, electronic cabinets, propulsion units, ship’s power units, etc.) to record acceleration-, velocity- and displacement-time histories that the equipment is experiencing. Innovation will be necessary to advance the current state-of-the-art in sensor technology to provide a system that is stand-alone, small, lightweight (less than 24 oz.), compact (less than 24" of cubic volume), able to maintain recording continuity at the beginning of the experience waveform, have a minimum recording sample rate of 20,000 samples per second covering a frequency range from 0 Hz (DC) to 2000 Hertz, able to capture and store 200 or more acceleration-versus-time waveforms in all three axes. Concepts should have a stored sample range of two seconds minimum for shock and fifteen seconds minimum for vibration) and should be designed for long term monitoring (20-30 years over the life of a ship) with minimum required maintenance.

PHASE I: Demonstrate the feasibility of an approach to provide measured and recorded acceleration-, velocity- and displacement-time histories for mission essential and mission critical equipment. Develop an initial conceptual design and establish performance goals and metrics to analyze the feasibility of the proposed solution. Perform bench top experimentation where applicable to demonstrate concepts.

PHASE II: Develop, demonstrate and fabricate a prototype as identified in Phase I. In a laboratory environment, demonstrate that the prototype meets the performance goals established in Phase I. Develop a cost benefit analysis and a Phase III installation, testing, and validation plan.

PHASE III: Working with government and industry, construct a full-scale prototype and install onboard a selected Navy ship and/or at a land-based test facility. Conduct extended testing and verify performance.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: This system could be used by any private sector or commercial activity that has a need to monitor and assess its product(s) (i.e., consumer electronics, medical devices, aerospace assemblies, transportation equipment, semiconductor tools, etc.) that may be subjected to shock and vibration environments (i.e., transportation by land, sea and/or air, etc.).

REFERENCES:
1. NAVSEAINST 9072.1A, "SHOCK HARDENING OF SURFACE SHIPS", dtd. 24 NOV 89
Available at http://assist.daps.dla.mil/quicksearch/

2. MIL-S-901D, "SHOCK TESTS, H.I. (HIGH-IMPACT) SHIPBOARD MACHINERY, EQUIPMENT, AND SYSTEMS, REQUIREMENTS FOR

3. MIL-STD-167-1A, "Mechanical Vibrations of Shipboard Equipment (Type I – Environmental and Type II – Internally Excited)"

4. Lansmont Field Instruments brochure, www.lansmont.com

KEYWORDS: Shock; Vibration; Measurements; Instrumentation; Data Acquisition; Analysis

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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