Flotation Body for Personal Watercraft Buoyancy and Vibration Damping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Personal watercrafts face challenges in maintaining buoyancy and orientation when the hull breaches, leading to submerged critical components due to inadequate buoyancy solutions.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a flotation body within the hull, positioned between the battery pack and the hull walls, which provides additional buoyancy and helps maintain a more horizontal orientation, while also damping vibrations and facilitating component positioning and assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If additional buoyancy components are added to the hull, then the personal watercraft can stay afloat in the event of a breached hull, but the useful components (seat, handles, foot rests, dashboard) may be submerged and not accessible to a user
Solution Approach 1:
The flotation body is nested within the hull's interior volume, positioned between the battery pack and the hull walls. This nested configuration provides buoyancy functionality without adding external components that would submerge useful features, allowing the watercraft to float while keeping the dashboard, seat, and other components accessible.
Solution Approach 2:
The flotation body utilizes the vertical dimension within the hull's interior volume, positioning itself between the bottom wall/side walls and the battery pack. This three-dimensional placement provides buoyancy without extending horizontally in a way that would submerge accessible components, effectively using unused vertical space to resolve the contradiction.
2Stability of the object's composition
If a flotation body is positioned within the interior volume between the battery pack and the hull walls, then the personal watercraft maintains a more horizontal orientation with components accessible, but the interior volume available for the battery pack is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The flotation body is positioned specifically in regions of the hull's interior volume that are less critical for battery pack placement. By targeting specific local areas (between the battery pack and hull walls) rather than occupying the entire interior volume, the design achieves horizontal orientation stability while minimizing the impact on battery pack space.
Solution Approach 2:
The interior volume is segmented into distinct functional zones: the flotation body occupies the space between the hull walls and battery pack, while the battery pack occupies the remaining volume. This segmentation allows both the flotation body (for orientation stability) and the battery pack (for energy storage) to coexist in their respective optimized zones.
3Reliability
If the flotation body is made of foam material to dampen vibrations, then the battery pack is protected from vibration impact, but the weight of the personal watercraft increases
Solution Approach 1:
The foam flotation body serves as an intermediary element positioned between the hull walls and the battery pack. It absorbs and dampens vibrations transmitted through the hull structure before they reach the battery pack, providing vibration protection without requiring heavy mechanical vibration isolation systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The flotation body is constructed from foam material, a porous structure that naturally provides vibration dampening properties. The cellular structure of the foam dissipates vibration energy, protecting the battery pack while adding minimal weight compared to solid materials with equivalent damping performance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The flotation body ensures the personal watercraft remains afloat with critical components accessible, reduces vibration impact on the battery pack, and simplifies assembly by providing structural support and positioning aids.
Implementation Method 1
a flotation body positioned within the interior volume between the battery pack and at least one of the bottom wall of the hull and the side wall of the hull
Implementation Method 2
the foam flotation body having at least one property to dampen vibrations from the hull
Data Source
AI summary
A personal watercraft includes a hull having a bottom wall and a side wall extending upwardly from the bottom wall. The bottom and side walls define an interior volume of the hull. A battery pack includes a plurality of battery modules. The battery pack is positioned within the interior volume. A flotation body is positioned within the interior volume between the battery pack and at least one of the bottom wall of the hull and the side wall of the hull.