Concorde Battery Test Rig

Concorde Battery Corporation is a company that makes lead-acid batteries for marine and aviation use.  They are at present making a new LMU battery for deep-sea diving purposes.  The new battery prototype wants to be tested for performance and structural malfunction.  A testing rig needs to be prepared to simulate deep-sea water pressure that will house the LMU battery for testing.  Our group is responsible for designing a test rig to that meets Concorde’s requirements and the finest way to do is to design a pressure vessel that pressurizes water.

The necessities are that the test rig must be able to house a 15x5x7 cubic inch LMU battery.  The testing rig must be able to pressurize tap water at 225 psi (pounds per square inch) and maintain that pressure.  Each test will last for 10 cycles where cycles 1 through 9 are for ten minutes at 225 psi and the tenth cycle will last for an hour at 225 psi.  The engineering requirements that we imposed are that the pressure vessel must be able to reach and maintain 300 psi for all 10 cycles.  The pressure vessel will have a smallest amount lifetime of 100,000 cycles.  It will be relatively simple to utilize and simple to carry my two people.  It is assumed that 100 psi of shop air is readily obtainable.

The testing rig is made of a cylindrical pressure vessel that will have a removable lid.  It is pressurized by using two cylinders that operate as an intensifier for the 100 psi of shop air that is assumed to be readily available.  A pneumatic cylinder that is connected to a hydraulic cylinder which has an inlet to the pressure vessel where the water is pressurized. 

Author:

Brandn Gazzolo

Will Macias

Chris Schwarz 

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