Pressure Chamber Laboratory
Contact person: Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Marius Wirtz
In our Pressure Chamber Lab we perform various types of tests, for example material tests. A maximum pressure can be generated in the pressure chamber. This corresponds to the pressure at a water depth of around 6,600 meters.
Field of application
How do materials react to high ambient pressure? How does the behavior of sensors and actuators changein deep-sea? Do sealings withstand the high pressure? These and more questions are investigated in the pressure chamber lab of the DFKI Robotics Innovation Center.
The physical properties of materials and fluids are completely different in deep-sea compared to the ones we experience on land. Oils, for example, change their viscosity and solid materials start to flow. Pressure chambers are built in order to explore these phenomena. These devices allow us to generate the ambient pressure conditions like they exist in deep-sea. An increase of one bar corresponds to an increase in depth of 10 meters. We can generate ambient pressure of up to 660 bar in our pressure chamber which means a depth of roughly 6,600 meters. This pressure range has not been chosen randomly. With this depth we qualify our tested objects and materials for 95% of the seabed of the earth.
Test set-up
In order to run our experiments, we fill the pressure hull with roughly 80 liters of water. The water is compressed under by a pump which leads to an increase of pressure within the chamber. Through 48 electriclanes with a maximum current transmission of 8 amps we can directly control our electronic components in the chamber during an experiment. This possibility together with a inspection glass at the top of the chamberthat allows for visual live monitoring of the experiments makes our pressure chamber unique.