Research on the vibration-absorptive design of the independent escape capsule.

The independent escape capsule, an important facility of submarine search and rescue (SAR) system, gains extensive attention recently. However, researches on its ejection performance are rare, not to mention the studies of structural design in terms of this theme. In this paper, the vibration-absorptive materials clinging to the inner wall of its housing are used, and hydrodynamic responses of the capsule at a particular orientation in steady, uniform currents under various design parameters such as rigidity, friction coefficient and thickness are simulated. In order to study this interdisciplinary problem of fluid-structure interaction and multi-body dynamics, a simulation model (loosely coupled scheme) based on Fluent (version 13.0.1) is adopted with complement of the contact force between the capsule and the vibration-absorptive materials. Specifically, Fluent is used to assess the hydrodynamic force acting on the capsule, distributed force mode and material mechanics method are adopted to obtain the contact force, and then fourth-order Runge-Kutta method is implemented to calculate the motion equations of the capsule. Discussion of motion characteristics of the capsule indicates that this vibration-absorptive design helps the ejection of the capsule. Mechanism of vibration-absorptive design is discussed and some design suggestions are given. • Vibration-absorptive design is proposed to improve the ejection performance of capsule. • Contact behavior between the capsule and vibration-absorptive materials is described. • Ejection process of the capsule using vibration-absorptive design is simulated. • Effects of design parameters of the vibration-absorptive materials on the ejection performance are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]