Micro-Hydraulic Pump for Supercavitating Vehicle Control

The US Navy has recently become interested in the development of supercavitating vehicles for many missions. High-speed supercavitating vehicles (HSSV) typically travel underwater at speeds above 150 knots in a cavity that covers most of the body, produced by the dynamic action of the fluid, or more commonly, by exhausting ventilation gas over the body. If the vehicle is designed correctly, there is significant drag reduction since only small regions at the nose and afterbody contact the water. The small water/body contact however limits the options for controlling the vehicle. Development of highly maneuverable supercavitating vehicles requires small high performance actuation systems. NextGenAero proposes to use its expertise in adaptive structures and micro actuation to design a fin control system to command both the fin's angle-of-attack and sweep in a compact form that can fit at its base. The compact control system will use a piezehydraulic pump, which NextGen has been using, and further developing, for other actuation programs, and has demonstrated superior power density. The research team will also include the Penn State Applied Research Lab, which is responsible for the control subsystem of the Supercavitating Test Bed program, providing supercavitating vehicle requirement expertise and testing capabilities.