Shipyard Tour 1/18

So last Friday Nick gave Isa, Juliette, and I a tour of the yard. I got the photos that he took approved for publication on this blog:

The NASSCO shipyard is totally different from any yard I've seen before. That's a large part of what I'm really enjoying about this winter work: despite the fact that this is my sixth internship, the work that I am doing and the things I've gotten to see have been completely different from anything I've done before. Even compared to last year, where I was in a large repair yard. The yard is way bigger than anything I've worked in before, and there's a large variety of ships. Not only that, but of the variety of ships, all of them are huge projects. Last year BAE had a few things going on at once, but it was mostly one or two destroyers at a time (and only one in drydock) and several small projects, such as yacht repairs that lasted for a couple of weeks or a few months. NASSCO has repairs and new-builds that are months and years long projects. It's pretty cool. The large new-build is also totally new to me, but I like the idea of seeing something that immense go through the whole design, construction, and then launch. It's definitely a new perspective. 

Last week Nick gave us a quick tour of most of the yard (the Matson new-build, ESB 5, etc.) but this most recent Friday we went with him, another engineer, and the two SDSU interns to measure sounding tubes on the ESB 5. That was pretty cool, and it was time spent out of the office, which is always enjoyable. I don't have pictures of that, but I have a picture of a DDG passing by that I took from the deck of ESB 5:

The other big thing we did at work this week was go see swage panel compression testing with Nick at SDSU. NASSCO is doing a project with NSRP (Naval Shipbuilding Research Program) where they are testing swage panels for suitability as bulkheads. They've tested base swage panels, and now they are testing panels with cutouts for wiring routes and stiffeners. The panel we saw on Thursday had two oval cutouts in between swages, and J-shaped cutouts on the swages for stiffeners to pass through. 

This is what the testing looked like at the beginning:

That's a hydraulic piston which compresses the bulkhead. The testing probably took about 30 minutes. Here's what it looked like a few minutes in:

You can see it buckling heavily at one end (the end with the stiffener cutouts). The green string across the front aligns with where the edge of the plate was at the beginning of testing. Over the course of the testing that area continued to buckle, and ultimately the edges of the stiffener cutout came in contact with the stiffeners. The stiffeners then started to cut into the bulkhead panel as the bulkhead continued to buckle into them. It was pretty cool. Here's some photos of the testing in process and the final result:

So that was pretty cool. They're doing testing about once every two weeks, so it's likely that we'll go see that again for a different panel arrangement. 

Today was beautiful out; this weekend the weather is sunny and in the 70s. I am definitely enjoying that aspect of San Diego. Isa and I went to the beach with Megan and Kevin, although I don't have any pictures from today. I was body surfing, although the waves weren't as good as last week. 

It's been a good week. I need to work on thesis more than I have. Maybe tomorrow evening. I can't believe the end of next week will be half way through the winter. I feel like there's still so much more I want to do out here; although, most of what I've wanted to do has been go to the beach, and I have been doing that, so no complaints here.