Rapid Decompression Containment System

Cal Poly students; Evan Domingue, Michelle Rudney and Daniel Trees; are working with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA, ASI) and engineer John Wilcox to complete a senior project. The senior project is focused on finding a solution to meet the requirement set forth in MIL-HDBK 1791 4.2.5.2 for rapid decompression which requires cargo items to be designed with pressure relief devices or to be configured for air shipment as to prevent any part from becoming a projectile in the event of catastrophic loss of aircraft cabin pressure. The goal of this project is to design a safe, cost-effective, and reusable system to alleviate an 8.3 psi differential inside of a sealed UAV container in 0.5 seconds. The solution that resulted from this Cal Poly design project is a disk panel design. The disk panel is held in place with magnets that disengage within the range of 1.0 psi to 1.5 psi differential across the container. Once the disk panel is disengaged, it can be reset for operation. The disk panel is held in place by four tethers as to not become a projectile during the event. For a container that is 5 feet X 7 feet X 35 feet in volume, two panels of 3.5 square feet will be implemented in order to reach the required exit area. Magnets were tested to optimize design and then one disk panel was tested under operating conditions