Lightweight Composite Shaft Sealing Mechanism

Experience has shown that the failure of drive shaft seals at a bulkhead pass through can occur as a result of collision or combat damage. The resulting flooding can quickly threaten ship survivability. KCI, working with Bath Iron Works and Greene Tweed, proposes to design and build a simple, low cost bulkhead shaft seal for damage control use to quickly seal such leaks. The concept proposed is to use a two part thermoplastic seal/bearing that can be easily installed on the shaft. The inner portion rotates with the shaft. The outer portion is connected to the bulkhead and supported by a tailored composite skirt that attaches to a permanently mounted bulkhead clamp. In Phase I KCI will work directly with BIW and Greene Tweed to conceive and iterate various system alternatives, compare them with our baseline system, and discuss the best of the alternative with the Navy. We will also develop test methods, fabricate test specimens and perform experimental studies to determine the effectiveness of our proposed shaft sealing system.