Buoyancy Driven Underwater Glider
Date
2014
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Engineering
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Thesis (B.A.)
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en_US
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Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
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Abstract
My senior design project was to design, construct, and test an underwater glider. A glider operates by changing its buoyancy to descend and ascend, and then converts this vertical motion into horizontal motion by the addition of wings. The change in buoyancy in my glider was effected by using a linear actuator to move two pistons, which were open to the environment, in and out. By moving the pistons in and out, the volume of water displaced by the glider can be controlled. Because of Archimedes' principle, the change in volume of water that is displaced changes the buoyancy of the glider. The glider was built out of pieces of 6 inch inner diameter, schedule 40, white PVC pipe, along with two end caps and a PVC coupling. The wing of my glider was made from a piece of plywood. After construction, testing showed that the glider had the ability to both descend and ascend in a water tank in the basement of the engineering building. When the glider was taken to the pool however, it failed to return to the surface after sinking, though it displayed its ability to glide forward while it sank.