Release date: 19 November 2020

Submarine hull hydro test

The requirement

To provide an external Hydro test on a client submarine hull in our 100 bar work chamber, based at our National Hyperbaric Centre (NHC) facility in Aberdeen.

Due to the length of the submarine hull, the work chamber door had to be removed by our gantry crane then refitted once the submarine was inside the work chamber.

How was the test undertaken?

To support this test JFD had to remove the door of the work chamber in advance of the client's equipment arriving onsite.

The full 300cm (internal diameter) x 800cm (internal length) and 63m² volume of the chamber was used in the test with only cm’s to spare from the end of the submarine and internal wall.

JFD used a 100 Tonne mobile crane to offload the submarine from the client trailer on arrival, load on to our trolley and into the chamber where it was strapped down to overcome the buoyancy.

The chamber was then filled with water and the pressure test conducted on the submarine to give our client confidence that their equipment could withstand the pressures it would be subjected to in regular operations, all within a safe and controlled environment.

Following the successful pressure test on the submarine it was removed from the chamber, loaded back on the trailer and transported back to the client.  JFD were then able to re-install the work chamber door.

Testing outcome

The trial enabled the customer to test their equipment in a controlled environment, at a fraction of the cost it would be to do on location.

This was the fourth such successful test to this procedure with this customer in the last 5 years. 

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