초록 ▼

A low friction surface is provided to hose-shaped acoustic envelopes for towed sonar arrays. The low friction surface permits multiple envelopes that are in intimate, parallel contact or that are crossed-over one another, to slide easily relative to one another, enhancing their deployment. The low f

A low friction surface is provided to hose-shaped acoustic envelopes for towed sonar arrays. The low friction surface permits multiple envelopes that are in intimate, parallel contact or that are crossed-over one another, to slide easily relative to one another, enhancing their deployment. The low friction surface is accomplished by blending particles of a low friction material with a base material. The mixture is heat extruded into pellets and the pellets are heat extruded into a hose of desired size. The exterior surface of the resulting hose is then subject to axially aligned abrasion to both expose the particles close to the exterior surface of the hose, and to create axially aligned micro-grooves in this surface. The micro-grooves allow water to enter and lubricate the boundary that is present, which is typically either another hose surface or the metal or other surface of an array deployment vehicle. The envelope material further provides improved damping of array hydrodynamic self noise for certain acoustic environments.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] A method of fabricating an acoustic envelope for towed sonar arrays comprising:forming an acoustic envelope material by mixing a base material and a low friction particulate material having lower friction characteristics than said base material, wherein said particulate m

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] A method of fabricating an acoustic envelope for towed sonar arrays comprising:forming an acoustic envelope material by mixing a base material and a low friction particulate material having lower friction characteristics than said base material, wherein said particulate material comprises particles having an average particle size of 8-15 microns; andforming said acoustic envelope material into an envelop having a longitudinal axis and an outer surface in which grooves are formed substantially in alignment with said longitudinal axis, wherein said grooves are formed substantially uniformly across said outer surface by an abrasive having a sandpaper coarseness between approximately 150 and approximately 400 grit.