Photo By Capt. Benjamin McKnight III | Declan DePietro works on the hull of Atlantic II as teammates look on during the 15th...... read more read more
When the very first International Human-powered Submarine Races were held in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 1989, Tony Lavigne was there. 30 years later, Lavigne is once again at the ISR, guiding the Florida Atlantic University team in their participation at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division.
FAU is a long way away from Boca Raton, Florida, this week but they are not in uncharted territory, having competed in multiple ISRs since its inception. With them is the Atlantic II, designed and built completely by the FAU Human-Powered Submarine Club. The first iteration of Atlantic was highly successful as the fastest submarine in the one-person college category of the 2017 races, and second in absolute speed among all competing submarines. Even with that accomplishment, team member Declan DePietro said they could go faster.
“We were hitting a speed and weren’t getting past that,” he said. “So for this submarine we spent a lot of time doing design, engineering and testing for the hull specifically.”
Part of that design adjustment included modifying the steering system, which teammate Ryan Fisher said had an articulating tail for greater mobility in Atlantic I. The team decided for Atlantic II to use standard rudders and dive planks, improving its straight-line speed.
“This is our first time where our prop and hull match the best. Usually, the hull has a certain drag and speed, but the prop doesn’t match it,” Lavigne said. “This time, it’s all been engineered much better.”
Keeping the submarine building processes organic was a high priority for the Owls, although time and availability was occasionally a team enemy. Outsourcing work or buying from a vendor may have been more convenient at times, but also ran the risk of sacrificing design elements for FAU.
“If we had a part that didn’t fit, we made another part that does, rather than having to get sent to us or adapt our design to an off-the-shelf piece,” Fisher said.
Despite the fact that varying schedules among the team often limited them to weekend testing of their submarine, FAU did not suffer from lack of water tests as the school is minutes from the Atlantic Ocean. Having built a reputation for speed in recent years, the Owls return to Carderock with great expectations. With each day, DePietro said that the objective is to go a little faster on each run so the sub will be able to handle the eventual top speed.
“These students are going to remember this the rest of their lives. This only happens once every two years and students come to this awesome facility at most twice,” Lavigne said. “The eyes of the ocean engineering world are on us right now. Letting them have that experience is pretty cool and you make connections for a lifetime at this place.”
| Date Taken: | 06.28.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 06.30.2019 09:03 |
| Story ID: | 329801 |
| Location: | WEST BETHESDA, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 109 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Florida Atlantic brings veteran guidance to ISR, by CPT Benjamin McKnight III, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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