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Optimization and application of a low-density epoxy composite coating for autonomous air-to-deep sea vehicles

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Abstract

Unmanned, autonomous air-to-sea vehicles, fully capable of transitioning between the two mediums, have only recently become technologically possible and have attracted great interest due to their numerous applications. However, current vehicles are unable to withstand the environmental conditions of the deep sea, especially with regards to their electronics. Previous methods for protecting electronics in the deep sea are not optimized for transitions to air. Here, a novel, lightweight, thermally-conductive, easily processed, mechanically robust, epoxy-based nanocomposite coating is presented. This material was developed with the intention of bringing the multi-domain air-water drone, known as the Naviator, to the deep ocean. In this work, the coating is thoroughly characterized and demonstrated to protect electronics submerged in water at high-pressure benchtop conditions as well as in an actual deep sea mission. The coating is also contrasted against unmodified epoxy, as well as commercial syntactic foam, and deemed superior for this application.

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taken from the shear viscosity of the three materials at γ̇ = 0.1s-1. The absorption data presented are the percent weight change of the samples after 2 h at 1500 psi processed without vacuum

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Funding

This work has been financially supported by the Office of Naval Research through award N0001418C2063.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Michael J. Grzenda, Aristedes Costeas, Paul N. Ferri, Francisco Javier Diez & Jonathan P. Singer

  2. SubUAS LLC, Hillsborough, NJ, 08844, USA

    Marco M. Maia

  3. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Aristedes Costeas, Paul N. Ferri, Francisco Javier Diez & Jonathan P. Singer

Authors
  1. Michael J. Grzenda
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  2. Marco M. Maia
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  4. Paul N. Ferri
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  5. Francisco Javier Diez
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  6. Jonathan P. Singer
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Contributions

MG contributed to methodology, validation, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization. MM contributed to conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, resources, writing—review and editing, project administration, funding acquisition. AC contributed to methodology, validation, investigation, resources. PF contributed to validation, investigation, resources. FJD contributed to conceptualization, methodology, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition. JPS contributed to conceptualization, methodology, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Michael J. Grzenda.

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Conflict of interest

Authors Francisco Javier Diez and Marco Maia are both partial owners of SubUAS LLC.

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Grzenda, M.J., Maia, M.M., Costeas, A. et al. Optimization and application of a low-density epoxy composite coating for autonomous air-to-deep sea vehicles. J Coat Technol Res 19, 1523–1534 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-022-00627-9

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