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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorHoward A. Miller
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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.
A method of fabricating an acoustic envelope for towed sonar arrays comprising:
An acoustic envelope for towed sonar arrays comprising:
An acoustic envelope for towed sonar arrays comprising:
A method for fabricating an acoustic envelope for towed sonar arrays comprising the steps of:
The method of claim wherein said particulate filler material comprises particles of polytetraflouroethylene.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.