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Development of a procedure for the selection of candidate vessels of opportunity in support of the submarine rescue diving and recompression system

Thesis (S.M. and Nav. E.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-93). / The IJ.S. Navy's new system for rescuing stranded submariners, the Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System (SRDRS), utilizes a tethered, remotely operated Pressurized Rescue Module (PRM) deployed and controlled from a Vessel of Opportunity (VOO). The PRM is capable of docking with the disabled submarine at pressure and rescuing up to 16 personnel per sortie. The PRM is launched and recovered using a deck mounted A-frame crane called the Launch and Recovery System (LARS). Upon recovery, the PRM docks with the Submarine Decompression System (SDS) to allow transfer and decompression of personnel. The PRM, LARS, SDS, and associated generators and auxiliaries all compose the Submarine Rescue System (SRS). The SRS, approximately 183 tons, is installed aboard the VOO. The SRS was nominally designed for operation on the U.S. Navy's Auxiliary Fleet Tug, T-ATF, but is actually intended to be a fly-away system, capable of being installed on any available VOO near the disabled submarine. The VOO may be any Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV), Anchor Handling Tug, or offshore barge that has the capacity to handle the SRS and is available in the area of a disabled submarine. / (cont.) Since the SRS must be rapidly deployed, potential VOOs must be quickly identified and evaluated for structural, stability and seakeeping suitability with respect to the requirements for the SRS. This thesis describes the theoretical background and development of a procedure intended to aid in the analysis and evaluation of potential VOOs for stability and seakeeping suitability. This procedure utilizes limited information about the potential VOO such as length, beam, draft, depth, deck strength, dead weight tonnage, etc. as inputs for rapidly modeling hull geometry. The developed hull geometry is combined with an empirically derived weight distribution which serve as the input for stability analysis for several different load cases and the seakeeping analysis. Theoretical and empirical analyses are used to justify the requisite assumptions and estimates used in developing the VOO stability and seakeeping models. The efficacy of this VOO evaluation process is demonstrated by both a comparison to known stability and seakeeping analyses for the T-ATF, and with a sensitivity analysis of assumed variables. / (cont.) With this process, the U.S. Navy will be able to rapidly analyze and evaluate the stability and seakeeping characteristics of potential Vessels of Opportunity and judge their suitability to carry and deploy the Submarine Rescue System. / by Robert Andrew Gold. / S.M.and Nav.E.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33578
Date January 2005
CreatorsGold, Robert Andrew
ContributorsDavid V. Burke and Henry S. Marcus., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Ocean Engineering., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Ocean Engineering.
PublisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Source SetsM.I.T. Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format138 p., 7670845 bytes, 7676621 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf
RightsM.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

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