The present invention belongs to the technical field of subsea equipment, and specifically pertains to a thrust reversal emergency jettison device for an underwater vehicle.
The development and utilization of marine resources has become a hot topic of research in various countries around the world. Underwater vehicles are an important underwater tool to explore and salvage underwater targets, and widely used in marine environment monitoring, resource exploration, marine archaeology, etc. An emergency jettison device is an important device that enables the underwater vehicle to ascend in an emergency such as water leakage and loss of control during operation. It is extremely important for various underwater vehicles.
In practical application, the underwater vehicle performs underwater search or salvage. When water leakage or power out of control occurs, the underwater vehicle will be trapped in bottom sediment. The traditional underwater emergency jettison is carried out by jettison the counterweight load only to reduce dead weight to produce buoyancy force, but the buoyancy force is limited and cannot pull the underwater vehicle out of the sediment, especially in the case of loss of power which often results in destruction or even loss of the underwater vehicle. Therefore, how to prevent underwater vehicles from being trapped in sediment and ensure safety of the underwater vehicle in an emergency is an urgent problem to be solved during underwater operation.
The present invention proposes a novel thrust reversal emergency jettison device which draws seawater into a gas reaction compartment by means of a low pressure to generate a high-pressure gas in the gas reaction compartment, uses the high-pressure gas to unhook a counterweight load of the device, injects the high-pressure gas from the bottom at the same time to provide a reverse thrust, and gives an upward reverse thrust to an underwater vehicle while jettison the counterweight, so that the underwater vehicle can also get rid of sediment in the case of power loss and urgently ascends, thereby improving safety and reliability of the underwater vehicle.
The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve the technical problem is as follows: a thrust reversal emergency jettison device for an underwater vehicle, comprises a thrust reversal mechanism, the thrust reversal mechanism comprises a casing and a gas reaction compartment provided in the casing; the gas reaction compartment communicates with a gas passage in the casing through a gas pipe; and a bottom end cover is provided at a bottom of the gas reaction compartment, and the bottom end cover is hermetically connected with the gas reaction compartment through a cylinder mechanism, and falls off automatically when a gas pressure in the gas reaction compartment increases.
Preferably, the cylinder mechanism is fixed on the bottom end cover, and comprises a gas chamber and more than two first piston barrels provided circumferentially around the gas chamber; a first piston is provided in the first piston barrel, and a clamping block is connected to an outer end of the first piston; and a bottom inner wall of the gas reaction compartment is provided with a clamping groove, and the first piston extends or retracts along the first piston barrel under the action of the gas pressure, thereby connecting/separating the clamping block with/from the clamping groove.
Preferably, an upper end face of the bottom end cover is provided with an annular axial baffle; an outer wall of the axial baffle is provided with an axial sealing ring; the upper end face of the bottom end cover is provided with a radial sealing ring, and a middle portion of the bottom end cover is provided with an air hole in communication with the gas reaction compartment; and a cylinder bracket is provided in the axial baffle.
Preferably, a top end cover is hermetically connected to a top of the gas reaction compartment; and the top end cover is provided with an opening, and a one-way normally open solenoid valve is mounted at the opening.
Preferably, the thrust reversal emergency jettison device further comprises a counterweight load; and the counterweight load is detachably assembled to an outer portion of the thrust reversal mechanism through a piston connecting rod mechanism.
Preferably, the piston connecting rod mechanism comprises a second piston and a second piston barrel, and the second piston barrel is connected with an inner wall of the casing and communicates with the gas passage in the shell of the casing; an outer end of the second piston is connected to a short connecting rod; the other end of the short connecting rod is connected with a long connecting rod, the short connecting rod is shorter than long connecting rod, an upper end of the long connecting rod is fixed by a rotating shaft, and a lower end is provided with a hook plate; and the second piston extends or retracts along the second piston barrel under the action of the gas pressure, thereby driving the long connecting rod to rotate around an axis.
Preferably, the hook plate is hinged to the lower end of the long connecting rod; a limiting baffle is provided below the hook plate; a chute with a downward opening is provided at a bottom of the casing; and the hook plate and the chute are respectively provided with magnetic surfaces with a same magnetism, and the hook plate rotates downwards to open under the action of repulsion of the same magnetism.
Preferably, the counterweight load is a shell structure with two open ends, an inner wall thereof is provided with an annular groove, and the annular groove is in fit with the hook plate for fixing.
Compared with the prior art, the present invention can provide a reverse thrust for an underwater vehicle in an emergency, help the underwater vehicle to ascend, prevent the underwater vehicle from being trapped in bottom sediment, and improve safety.
Reference numerals in the drawings: 1: casing; 2: solenoid valve holder; 3: one-way normally open solenoid valve; 4: second piston barrel; 5: top end cover; 6: gas pipe; 7: isolation mesh: 8: gas reaction compartment: 9: bottom end cover; 10: four-way cylinder; 11: long connecting rod; 12: second piston; 13: counterweight load; 14: triangular clamping block; 15: hook plate; 16: limiting flange; 17: cylinder frame;
In order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms, and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided to enable the disclosure to be understood thoroughly and completely.
The present embodiment provides a thrust reversal emergency jettison device for an underwater vehicle, as shown in
As shown in
A second piston barrel 4 is also connected to an inner wall of the casing 1 and communicates with the gas passage 1-2, and a second piston 12 is assembled in the second piston barrel 4. A piston limiting block 4-2 is provided at a connection between the second piston barrel 4 and the gas passage 1-2 for the purpose of limiting a range of an inward movement of the second piston 12. An outer end of the second piston barrel 4 is provided with a limiting flange fixing hole 4-1 which is in fit a limiting flange 16 to limit a range of an outward movement of the second piston 12 and prevent the piston from falling out. Two symmetrical triangular chutes 1-5 are provided at a lower end of the casing 1, and the triangular chutes 1-5 have magnetic bevels 1-6 therein.
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In the present embodiment, a substance capable of reacting with water to generate gas, such as alkali metal sodium, lithium, etc. or calcium carbide, is placed on the isolation mesh 7 in the gas reaction compartment 8. A large amount of gas is generated in the gas reaction compartment 8 through chemical reaction, and since the gas reaction compartment is a closed compartment body, a pressure in the compartment is greater than a pressure outside the compartment. The high-pressure gas in the compartment is used as a power source for subsequent reverse thrust.
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The thrust reversal emergency jettison device for the underwater vehicle according to the present invention is mainly assembled at the bottom of the underwater vehicle to perform jettison and ascending in case of emergency, and provides an upward thrust to prevent the underwater vehicle from being unable to ascending due to obstacles such as sea grass and sediment.
When mounted on the water surface, the thrust reversal emergency jettison device for the underwater vehicle according to the present invention feed metallic sodium onto the isolation mesh 7 in the gas reaction compartment 8. Then the top end cover 5 is hermetically connected with a top of the gas reaction compartment 8, the water outlet of the one-way normally open solenoid valve 3 is connected with the solenoid valve connection port 5-3, and the control line of the one-way normally open solenoid valve 3 is connected with a control mainboard in the underwater vehicle, the one-way normally open solenoid valve 3 is powered on, and the solenoid valve connection port 5-3 is closed.
Initially, normal atmospheric pressure is present in the four-way cylinder 10 on the cylinder bracket 9-6 of the bottom end cover 9. The bottom end cover 9 is pushed into the bottom sealing port 8-6, and since the triangular clamping block 14 has a bevel 14-2, under compression of the bottom sealing port 8-6, the triangular clamping block 14 moves inwards, and the first piston 10-1 is pressed inwards along the first piston barrel 10-2. When the bottom end cover 9 is pushed to the bottom, the axial sealing ring 9-2 and the radial sealing ring 9-3 complete sealing of the bottom sealing port 8-6, and meanwhile the triangular clamping block 14 is pushed to the clamping groove 8-7. Due to the gas pressure, the first piston 10-1 extends outwards along the first piston barrel 10-2, and the triangular clamping block 14 is inserted into the clamping groove 8-7 to fix the bottom end cover 9 at the bottom sealing port 8-6. The process is shown in
Subsequently, the gas in the gas reaction compartment 8 is drawn out through the one-way valve on the outside of the air hole 9-1. Since the gas pressure in the gas reaction compartment 8 decrease while the gas pressure in the gas compartment 10-3 keeps unchanged, the gas pressure pushes against the first piston 10-1 to move outward along the first piston barrel 10-2, which in turn clamps the triangular clamping block 14 more tightly. Meanwhile, due to the external atmospheric pressure, the bottom end cover 9 is pressed at the bottom sealing port 8-6, and the piston body 12-1 is pushed towards the gas passage 1-2 and is limited by the piston limiting block 4-2. Movement of the piston body 12-1 drives the short connecting rod 12-2 and the snap ring 12-3 to move. The snap ring 12-3 is in fit with the rod body 11-4 through a pin, thereby driving the rod body 11-4 to move. The tail end of the rod body 11-4 is provided with the hook plate 15. Since the hook plate 15 has the magnetic surface 15-2 magnetically the same as the magnetic bevel 1-6 of the triangular chute 1-5, and limited by the limiting baffle 11-6, the hook plate 15 is in an unfolded style, as shown in
The counterweight load 13 is sleeved on an outside of the casing 1 from bottom to top. The inner wall of the counterweight load 13 first presses the hook plate 15 into the triangular chute 1-5 in a vertical direction, as shown in
The device of the present invention is placed underwater after assembly. Due to water pressure, the bottom end cover 9 is pressed at the bottom sealing port 8-6. When an emergency occurs, the control mainboard in the underwater vehicle disconnects circuits, and the one-way normally open solenoid valve 3 is opened. Since an external water pressure is greater than the gas pressure in the gas reaction compartment 8, seawater enters the gas reaction compartment 8 from the solenoid valve connection port 5-3. Due to presence of a protective layer of sodium oxide on the surface of metallic sodium, reaction between the sodium oxide and the seawater is slightly slow, providing certain time for drawing seawater. When the reaction between the sodium oxide and the seawater completes, the internal sodium reacts violently with the seawater. Due to one-way conductivity of the one-way normally open solenoid valve 3 and sealing of the gas reaction compartment 8 by the bottom end cover 9, the gas pressure in the gas reaction compartment 8 increases rapidly. When the gas pressure in the gas reaction compartment 8 is greater than the external water pressure, the gas pressure in the gas reaction compartment 8 pushes the piston body 12-1 to move outwards. The rod body 11-4 drives the hook plate 15 to move to the middle through linkage of the short connecting rod 12-2, the snap ring 12-3 and the rod body 11-4, and the hook plate 15 gradually disengages from the annular groove of the counterweight load 13. When the hook plate 15 is unable to catch the counterweight load 13, the counterweight load 13 falls due to the force of gravity, achieving jettison.
The pressure in the gas reaction compartment 8 continues to increase, and the gas pressure in the gas compartment 10-3 keeps unchanged, under the action of the external pressure, the first piston 10-1 drives the triangular clamping block 14 to move inwards along the first piston barrel 10-2. When the pressure reaches a certain level, the triangular clamping block 14 is disengaged from the clamping groove 8-7, and the bottom end cover 9 is subject to an inward force of the external water pressure and a friction force of the wall of the compartment, as well as an internal pressure. Since the pressure in the gas reaction compartment 8 is much greater than the external water pressure and the friction force of the wall of the compartment, the bottom end cover 9 is ejected by the internal pressure, the seawater and the high-pressure gas in the gas reaction compartment 8 are accelerated by the bottom constriction port 8-5, and then are ejected from the bottom sealing port 8-6, which generates a reverse thrust that enable the underwater vehicle to get rid of sediment and sea grass, and ascend to the water surface faster.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202211237247.6 | Oct 2022 | CN | national |
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CNIPA, Notification of First Office Action for Chinese application CN202211237247.6, Nov. 25, 2022. |
CNIPA, Notification to grant patent right for Chinese application CN202211237247.6, Jan. 5, 2023. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20240034448 A1 | Feb 2024 | US |