Weight, buoyancy and stabiltiy of the research submarine Alvin

Abstract

During the period from October 1964 to May 1965, the ALVIN was located in a hanger at Otis AFB where a number of changes were made. These included: 1) Redesign of the electrical circuits to provide individual isolated circuits for the emergency systems. 2) Installation of leak detectors in the fixed buoyancy packages containing 7178-T6 Aluminum spheres. 3) Redesign of the hull release mechanism. 4) Installation of the pressure sensing mechanism (switch and valve) in the variable ballast system. 5) Replacement of the battery. 6) Addition of syntactic foam. 7) Addition of glass reinforced plastic reinforcement to the faired shell. 8) Addition of the second air bottle. 9) Removal of solenoids for manual operation of the conning tower flood valves. 10) Redesign of the interior sphere arrangement.