Smart Damage Control Boundary Opening System

"The development of a Smart Damage Control Boundary Opening System will drastically reduce the maintenance costs for present ship doors and will also provide the capability to monitor the ship environment continuously and thus save sailor lives. Theobjective of this proposal is to continue the development of the Smart damage control boundary opening system, initiated during Phase I. During Phase I, a prototype smart door system consisting of shape memory alloy actuators, magnetic gasket, wirelesssensors, and RF circuitry was demonstrated successfully. In Phase II, the design of all modules will be refined, fabricated, integrated and tested in 'real-world' conditions. Based on our Phase I feasibility study, the proposed composite door structure canwithstand higher pressures than existing doors. All the ship doors can be closed at once without manual intervention in less than 10 seconds. Also, the supporting wedges can be actuated remotely in a few milliseconds. The new SMA actuated sealing andclosing mechanisms provide enhanced functionality such as remote opening/closure of doors, an efficient watertight/airtight seal at higher pressures, and minimal maintenance. The electrical unit of the Smart Door system consisting of wireless sensors,advanced signal processing routines, RF transmission and networking enables continuous monitoring of the ship environment, thus improving the safety on the ship.BENEFITS: The components that make up t