FR2654204A1 - Guide wire dispenser device for a torpedo (missile) moving at high speed through a fluid - Google Patents

Abstract

The device comprises a spool (2) of wire integrated with the rear structure of a submerged torpedo (1), such as the fairing (9) of the propeller (4). The wire (3) is wound in turns on a cylindrical mandrel (10) from which it escapes rearwards by gliding over the preferably conical end (16), as the said torpedo advances, and so that it remains approximately motionless with respect to the surrounding medium. The said spool (2) is immersed and protected by a hood (12) which is pierced with holes to facilitate the flow of the fluid, which makes it possible to retain the external dimensions of the torpedo whilst affording it better speed performance and autonomy.

Description

DESCRIPTION
The present invention is a device for unwinding the filotransmission cable of a machine moving at high speed in a fluid.

 The technical sector of the invention is the manufacture of a reel of filotransmission cable, placed in a part of the fairing of any body immersed in a fluid, with which it is desired to maintain a transmission link through said ~ cable, whatever the speed of this body.

 One of the main applications of the invention is its use for fiber-optic guidance of a self-propelled submarine torpedo at high speed.

 It is known in fact that it is difficult to transmit reliable and undisturbed information to a machine moving at high speed, and the problem is even more critical in the underwater field where the possible carrier waves available have a range in small distances, reduced bandwidth and are easily diverted and disturbed.

 Also, in many applications, it is necessary to keep a connecting cable between an uninhabited machine that we want to control and from which we want to receive information and its control support where the control instruments are located: in the case of the machine moving at low speed vertically and in an area close to it, these cables can be relatively bulky, are generally fixed on the machine and take place from the support.

 This principle is not applicable, however, to vehicles moving at higher speeds and over fairly large distances, because the cable slows down their travel and therefore induces efforts to overcome and significant powers: very thin cables are used, which 'rather, we call wires, which above all ensure the transmission of information and very rarely power and which take place from the moving machine. The unrolled parts then remain immobile with respect to the water and therefore only induce a little effort on the machine, by themselves undergoing only a small pulling force in return.

 These wires can be relatively fragile and have a very small diameter, optical fibers are used more and more for this.

 In general, these wire cables are then lost after each use, hence the advantage of using fibers without tensile reinforcement to minimize the costs.

 Many companies manufacture machines equipped with various devices including such a wire connection, taking place from a coil placed on the machine: one can quote for example the remote-controlled vehicles manufactured by the Company ECA and which are implemented from a ship , generally military, to lay underwater mines, or locate them to detonate them from a distance.

This company also filed the patent application "submarine link by wire" on March 27, 1980 under the NO. FR. 2,479,129 which describes a coil of wire carried by a diver or an underwater vehicle, which then unwinds said wire behind it while moving, the other end being connected to a fixed device placed on the bottom.

 In the most widespread category of underwater vehicles, torpedoes, many of them are also wire-guided, to ensure better high-speed guidance on their objective, given the limitations of transmission in the aquatic environment; the problem then called wire-guiding is, in this case, even more crucial because of the relatively high speeds of these machines, which can propel themselves at more than 20 m / sec. or 70 km / H and over distances of more than 10 km.

 To date, these torpedoes have a housing located in a specific section of the main body, filled with water and generally located towards the middle of this body: the wire is wound in this housing in a circular coil with the outer end fixedly connected to the other parts of the machine and the free inner end passing through a tube, connecting said housing to a rear outlet located either on the periphery of the thruster fairing, or in its axis; thus when the torpedo advances, the wire is unwound from the inside of the coil by sliding through this tube by the pulling effect which it undergoes from the support which launches said torpedo and which concerns the free end of the wire wire guidance.

 This device has been known for a long time and is applied to all torpedoes known to date, and has been improved during the achievements either by the quality of the cables used and their storage process, either by the systems for connection with the support or by tube passages in the torpedo: some manufacturers have filed some patent applications on certain improvements such as that of the German company LICENTIA PATENT-VERWALTUNGS GmbH, filed on August 24, 1965 under the NO.FR. 1.602.868 and relating to a "flexible protective sheath for the control wire, capable of unwinding from a building coil and a wire-controlled torpedo coil to be launched from a building", or that of the Swedish company FORENADE FABRIKSVERKEN deposited on October 17, 1978 under No. ER. 2.406.801 and describing "improvements made to wire-guided torpedoes".

 Despite all the improvements made to this system, it turns out that this reel mounting in the center of the torpedo body, limits the speed of this machine because the wire by sliding in the outlet tube towards the rear transmits an effect water pump in it, causing a large volume of liquid which therefore pulls on the wire and the machine, slowing it and risking breaking it. In addition, this assembly complicates the structure of the devices located in two housings on either side of that of the coil, and therefore increases the cost of the assembly. Furthermore, the impoundment of part of the contraption increases its inertia and its mass. the length and therefore the surface are also increased compared to a free torpedo: all of these criteria, for a given performance therefore requires a greater propulsion power than for a free torpedo, with the consequences that this induces on storage Energy; thus for distance and equivalent speed performance, wire-guided torpedoes are heavier, bulky and carry proportionately less payload than the others.

 The problem is to be able to ensure the wire guidance of a machine, even without propellant, at high speed and at long distance, and in a fluid without significantly increasing its volume, its mass of submerged water and its propulsion power compared to a machine of the same free type and while ensuring high reliability and reducing the cost of production compared to current systems.

 A solution to the problem posed is a device for unwinding the filotransmission cable of a machine moving in a fluid and on which said cable is stored in the form of a reel integrated into its structure, in order to be unwound on demand. depending on the displacement of said machine in said fluid, characterized in that said coil is located at the rear, immersed in said fluid and around a part of said structure, so that the end of said cable, integral with the the machine is that of the layer of smaller diameter of said coil, and the free end unwinds from the outer layer of larger diameter, sliding relatively on the back and out of the structure, forming a sort of curve in frusto-conical propeller gradually closing behind said machine and each point of which then remains more or less stationary relative to said fluid.

 The result consists of new devices for unwinding the filotransmission cable of a machine moving at high speed in a fluid. These devices as described below indeed bring great advantages compared to current techniques the main advantage is indeed that it makes it possible to envisage, and tests have proved it, displacement speeds of more than 30 m / sec, while ensuring great autonomy up to a distance of more than 40 km when choosing a fiber optic cable.

 In the device according to the invention, the forces are effectively reduced to a minimum and make it possible to improve current performance. In addition, by using an existing volume around the rear structure of the machine which is often profiled, it does not increase the diameter thereof, nor of course its length unlike current systems.

 When it is a self-propelled vehicle, generally of the torpedo type, said rear part of the structure is then the propellant itself: if it is already faired, it suffices to arrange the fairing to incorporate the coil therein. of wire, and if not, it suffices to add the latter to then constitute the fairing.

 This system is adaptable to any device, even of the missile or buoy type dropped from the bottom of the ocean and rising rapidly to the surface by their natural or additional thrust.

 The device according to the invention therefore simplifies the structures of the machine, avoids the immersion of a part of its main body and therefore lightens it by eliminating volume lost compared to current systems: there is no longer need for a submerged connection between the two parts previously located on either side of the housing receiving said coil; there is no longer a rear passage tube which is a source of boredom for the wire, thus slowing down the possible speed of unwinding. The reliability of the assembly is thereby improved and the costs reduced.

 In the following description, we describe an exemplary embodiment of the devices according to the invention, but other embodiments can be envisaged within the framework thereof: the figures and descriptions have no limiting character.

Figure 1 is an overview of the device mounted on a torpedo launched from a support itself mobile
Figure 2 is a sectional view of the device mounted on a streamlined self-propelled torpedo propellant.

Figure 1 is an overview of a machine 1 moving in a fluid 13 from a launcher support 5. which can be itself mobile. The machine can be of any type, self-propelled or not, and the fluid can be of any kind. In our example and in order to fix the main applications, this fluid 13 can be sea water and the device 1 a torpedo
The support 5 can then be a container placed on the deck of a ship or a compartment of a carrier submarine or a launcher mounted on an aircraft.

 This support 5 contains, which can be in a torpedo tube in a known manner a launcher sheath 7, which protects the wire relative to the structures of the launcher building, and a coil 6 for storing cable or wire: in fact , to also allow the support 5 to move after the launch of the machine 1 without pulling the filotransmission cable 3 connecting the two materials, so that it remains in fact stationary relative to the fluid 13, we have a connector 8 between the free end 15 of the wire 3 connected to the machine 1, and that of the wire connected to the support 5; this connection thus remains at the point of launching and is the original reference from which each mobile device departs, the support 5, unwinding the wire from the storage reel 6 which can be of any known type, and the machine or torpedo 1 that 3 stored on the coil 2 of the device according to the invention.

 In our example figure, there is shown a device mounted around a propellant 4, which is the rear part of the structure of the machine 1: this propellant can be of any type, either consisting of counter-rotating propellers as shown here , but also a propeller associated with a fairing and a fixed propeller as in the following figure, or a jet.

 When said conical part 4 of the structure of the machine 1 and therefore the propellant thereof, if it is not already faired, said coil 2 then constitutes a fairing which is added to this propellant.

When said rear part 4 of the structure of said machine 1 is already a faired propellant, said coil 2 is incorporated into said fairing of this propellant by an adaptation for example by machining its external profile as described in FIG. 2.

 Said filotransmission cable 3 may consist of copper wires. but to increase its length for a given storage volume in the coil 2, it is preferably retained at least one optical fiber whose length can allow movement of said machine 1 to a minimum distance of 30 km: this has been studied with a so-called heavy torpedo 533.4 mm in diameter and 5.6 m long, with an optical cable with a diameter less than 300 microns.

 The wire 3 then slides out of the spool 2 on demand, as the machine 1 advances, making a helical curve behind it: said curve flattens into a cone . each point of said cable approaching the axis of displacement due to the residual traction still existing in the cable, but this displacement is slow, compared to the speed which one can say great of the machine which can go up to at and beyond 30 m / sec, without risk for the cable, while an unwinding by peripheral rotation around the reel as on a reel, would make whip said cable in the fluid, which would also be entrained and the cable would break quickly.

 Figure 2 is a sectional view of the device according to the invention mounted on a propellant 4, faired torpedo 1 self-propelled. In this example, but as we have indicated previously other types of propellant can be used, or even no propellant at all, the propellant 4 consists of a movable propeller 17 and a fixed propeller 11 at the rear and with a step opposite to the first to reduce the effects of rotation that the latter induces on the torpedo 1. This fixed propeller 11 or stator supports a fairing 9 which can therefore be preexisting.

 In a preferred embodiment, especially for the high speeds defined above, said coil 2 consists of a cylindrical mandrel 10, of a length approximately equal to that occupied by all the turns of the wire 3 which is wound therein, and the rear end 16 of which is released, so that when it slides out of the mandrel (10), said cable 3 does not undergo overvoltage risking damaging it.

 Preferably and as is the case in most fairings for hydrodynamic reasons, said end 16 of said mandrel is conical, but here in addition to the hydrodynamic interest, this shape is guided by the shape of the curve that takes the wire 3 when it emerges from the mandrel 10 to avoid excessive friction; the end 15 can thus be unwound very easily.

 In order to protect the turns of the cable 3 stored in coil 2, the latter can be protected by an outer cover 12 which covers said turns of said wire 3, in whole or in part.

 In addition, in order to facilitate the arrival and circulation of said fluid in said coil 2, said cover 12 can be drilled with holes 18.

 Finally, the other end 14 fixed and integral with the machine 1 can penetrate into the body thereof using a passage from one of the fins 19 for supporting the front fairing 9. This end 14 is that of the last turn of the layer of smaller diameter of the coil 2 and ensures the passage of the information arriving and leaving from the other end 15 of the cable or wire 3.

Claims (8)

 1. Cable unwinding device (3) for the filotransmission of a machine (1) moving in a fluid (13) and on which said cable is stored in the form of an integrated coil (2) in its structure, in order to '' to be unwound on demand as a function of the displacement of said machine in said fluid (13), characterized in that said coil (2) is located at the rear, immersed in said fluid and around a part (4) of said structure, such that the end (14) of said cable (3), integral with the machine is that of the layer of smaller diameter of said coil (2), and the free end (15) is unwound from the outer layer of larger diameter, sliding relatively on the back and out of the structure, forming a sort of frustoconical helix curve gradually closing behind said machine (1) and each point of which then remains little by little almost immobile with respect to said fluid (13).  2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said machine (1), moving at high speed in said fluid (13), for example up to and from 30m / sec, said coil (2) is constituted a cylindrical mandrel (10), of a length approximately equal to that occupied by all of the turns of the wire (3) which is wound therein, and the rear end (16) of which is released, so that during its sliding out of the mandrel (10), said cable (3) does not undergo overvoltage risking damaging it.  3. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that said rear end (16) of said mandrel (10) is conical.  4. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said rear part (4) of the structure of said machine (1) is the propellant thereof and said coil (2) constitutes a fairing (9 ) said propellant (4).  5. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said rear part (4) of the structure of said machine (1) is a faired propellant and said coil (2) is incorporated in said fairing (9) of this propellant.  6. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that said coil (2) is protected by an outer cover (12) which covers the turns of said wire (3).  7. Device according to claim 6, characterized in that said cover (12) is pierced with holes (18) in order to facilitate the arrival and circulation of said fluid in said coil (2).  8. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that said cable (3) consists at least of an optical fiber whose storage length in said coil (2), allows movement of said machine ( 1) up to a minimum distance of 30 km.