Buoyant test vehicle polymer ejection nose assembly

摘要

An underwater vehicle has a generally cylindrically portion with boundary layer polymer fluid storage and a pressurizing source provided therein, and a nose portion secured to the cylindrical portion and capable of being reconfigured for ejecting the polymer fluid from the nose adjacent the centerline of the vehicle or from the area of minimum pressure adjacent the juncture between the nose of the vehicle and the cylindrical portion. The nose portion can be reconfigured without breaking down the joint between the nose portion and the cylindrical portion of the vehicle. A removable plug is provided for isolating nose ejector ports, and a removable channel blocking dam is provided for isolating the ports provided in the area of minimum pressure adjacent the joint between the nose portion and the cylindrical portion of the vehicle. Further, the nose ejector ports are defined in a removable nose cap subassembly and a removable annular subassembly defines the ejector ports in the area of minimum pressure. Flexibility is further provided in that the forward nose and more rearward ejection configurations can be selected from a variety of such configurations to allow testing of different port configurations, sizes and slot shapes without replacing the entire nose portion of the vehicle.