Conical Seat Type Hatch Cover for a 2000m Deep Sea Research Submersible

Abstract

The conical hatch cover has been developed as the hatch cover for the deep sea research submersible. The light-weight and high-strength pressure hull is essential requirement for the deep sea research submersible, therefore, this requirement must be met to the hatch cover as the part of the pressure hull. As the conical hatch cover, which is made of the same material as the pressure hull, has the same dynamic behavior as the pressure hull, this hatch cover has structual continuity and has a merit of a little supplement. In the course of the research development, the model tests and the FEM analyses by using mathematical models has been carried out to solve some problems concerning to the structual continuity between the hatch cover and the pressure hull and we has made remarkable achievement. This paper describes the structual continuity of the conical hatch cover based on the results about these tests and FEM analyses. It is considered that this conical hatch cover will make a great contribution together with the pressure hull to the development of deep submergence vehicle in the future.