and to dissimilar materials, of protecting against point and shock 

 loading, and of establishing adequate quality control had to be tackled 

 and at least partially solved. From the very beginning, three distinct 

 streams of research in the use of glass and ceramics for deep submergence 

 applications became discernible (Figure 1). First, there was the research 

 directed to the use of glass and ceramics for hulls of deep submergence 

 buoys; second, the research applying itself to the utilization of these 

 materials for deep submergence ASW torpedoes and instrumentation capsules; 

 and third, the research dedicated to the solution of the engineering 

 problems blocking the path to the use of glass in submarine hulls. Each 

 one of these areas of research has produced tangible results which tes- 

 tify to the progress made in these rather distinct research areas. In 

 addition, glass and ceramics could also be applied to hulls of permanent 

 sea floor installations where their resistance to corrosion, creep, and 

 leakage is found advantageous. However, due to lack of interest and 

 funding, no work has yet been done in this very promising area of research. 



Since the author's work has been centered, primarily, in the research 

 area of deep submergence oceanographic instrumentation capsules and ASW 

 weapon hulls, the discussion of this research area will form the main 

 body of the paper, while the work in the other research areas will be 

 discussed only peripherally. 



BUOYS 



Glass and ceramics saw their first application in the deep submer- 

 gence engineering field as buoys. Buoys, generally made in spherical 

 shapes, are very simple structures, as their main application is to 

 provide buoyancy for diverse oceanographic systems. Since their main 

 application is simply providing buoyancy to other oceanographic systems, 

 the structures consist only of a hull, which is either a monolithic 

 sphere or is made up of two hemispheres held together mechanically or 

 with the help of adhesives. Up to this time, the spherical deep sub- 

 mergence buoys have been made available on a commercial basis only in 

 Coor's Porcelain AD-99C alumina and Corning Glass Works' Pyrex glass 

 with approximate weight to displacement ratios of .27 and .37, respec- 

 tively. The buoys are available in 1- to 12-inch diameters in alumina 

 and in 2- to 23-inch diameters in Pyrex. Both the alumina and Pyrex 

 buoys have an operational depth of 20,000 feet, while their implosion 

 depths vary from 25,000 to 40,000 feet depending on the buoy's size, 

 type of joint, gasket material in the joint, and deviation from nominal 

 diameter, wall thickness and sphericity. 



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