Submarine Yacht project

[wellmer]

Built a submarine yacht 20 tons in 1996 works well low maintainance cost want to discuss similar projects. See submarine project at www.tolimared.com/submarine
Let me hear your opinion

[Toot]

Wow! Very impressive!

The best part about it, in my humble opinion, is that you can limit the hatch size in order to prevent fat chicks from getting aboard!





(Ok... I know I'm gonna catch hell for saying that, but it's still pretty funny....)

[wellmer]

Hi Toot,
Thanks for your comment - i like the idea - on this small boat hatch diameter is 50 cm - so even big chicks can go in.
I checked the viewport size and found that there are acrylic domes available up to 6 feet diameter - so a hatch must not be that small...

[Toot]

Originally Posted by wellmer

Hi Toot,
Thanks for your comment - i like the idea - on this small boat hatch diameter is 50 cm - so even big chicks can go in.

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, MAN??!!!!

[Guillermo]

Interesting project, Wil. But it's going to be no easy task.
Have you compared costs against an all steel one?
Cheers,

[wellmer]

Hello Guillermo

I agree that in yacht building steel is better option. - Not so in a submarine.
Walls of a 9m sub are 18 cm thick and have spheric curves - no way to do this in steel.

While you go for al light hull in a yacht you go for a pressure resistant hull in a sub. This is where advantage of making thick walls with little forming effort becomes important.

second, steel needs maintainance, concrete not. This is why oil rig legs and submarine tunnels are made in concrete not in steel.

Even a small sub like my project is a lot more heavier than a similiar sized surface boat - therefore slipping cost is high - so avoiding go to slip during decades is a mayor cost benefit.

My sumarine yacht had lower maintainance cost than similar sized sailing yachts under same mooring conditions. see www.tolimared.com/sumbmarine

[wellmer]

I found that that the link to the website with my concrete submarine yacht proyect is not correct in the last message...here is the right link:
http://imulead.com/tolimared/submarine/

[FranklinRatliff]

Originally Posted by wellmer

Built a submarine yacht 20 tons in 1996 works well low maintainance cost want to discuss similar projects. See submarine project at www.tolimared.com/submarine
Let me hear your opinion

That's just genius.

[MarkC]

Visit www.psubs.org - the web/blog site for self-built submersibles. They have books, articles, plans for sale, photos, reader's projects etc. Everything.

[marshmat]

Very clever little thing, Wilfried. I'm quite impressed.
Curious what you're doing for air supply while submerged, and how you're dealing with carbon dioxide buildup- does it have a lithium hydroxide scrubber, compressed air tanks, etc- or do you just surface when you need to change the air?

[wellmer]

In a 20 ton submarine you have about 20.000 liters of air, you take about 2 liters per breath, and you can rebreath the same air several times until CO2 build up becomes critical - this gives you hours of divetime without air treatment in a submarine yacht.

[longliner45]

is this hull reenforced with steel rebarb? or anything else?,

[wellmer]

Hello Longliner45,

There is no need for experimental concrete in a submarine hull as the forces that appear in a submaine hull of thick walls are the same as in the walls of a submarine tunnel, the legs of a oilrig or the base of a concrete dam.

So reinforcing the concrete with something else than steel would not make any sense.

The reason why you use steelreinforcement in concrete is to give the concrete strenght against tension forces.

Steel and concrete have a very similar extension characteristic when temperature changes - this makes them ideal partners in a composite material.

Do not use other reinforcement materials in your concrete it is asking for problems...

Concrete engineering is a very simple sience with a couple of quite basic rules and very forseeable results if you stay within the rules.

This is why millions of constructions all over the world trust in reenforced concrete in aplications where live depends on it.

The new thing in a concrete submarine is applying the proven engineering of tunnels, oil rigs and dams, to submarines - basicly adding a motor, rudder, and tanks, to the structure to convert it into a submarine.

Do not leave the proven field of normal concrete - this is a dangerous way that can bring up catastrophic unexpected failure.

Kindest Regards,
W.Ellmer

[marshmat]

Spoken like a true civil engineer.... they sure love their concrete.... you wouldn't happen to be one, by some chance?
Some of the researchers here are investigating the use of carbon reinforcements in/around concrete columns... frankly I don't get the point; concrete is popular mainly because it's dirt cheap, and carbon tends to be insanely expensive... but I guess they can justify it somehow. Also some work there on fibreglass-mesh reinforcements that might be promising.
It looks like you've stayed with tradition and overbuilt everything- a sound design philosophy for this project, IMHO. Very cool, indeed.

[wellmer]

Hello Matt,
I am not a civil engineer, but i have discussed this a lot with civil engineers, and the concrete handbook for civil engineers is my bible in this as i really want to build with a material that is investigated and forseeable when my life depends on it.
Fiber of any kind in concrete is big problem: The key factor for strong concrete is compacting the concrete during casting. So spaces smaller than 3 cm are TABU en concrete construction this is why you see workers with vibrators compacting concrete between the steelbars on every construction site - how would you fill and compact concrete between the micrometer spaces of a glass or carbon fibers - i have never seen such an application in any construction site - probably there are good reasons NOT to do it.
Anyhow there are fiber concrete aplications for roofs like ETERNIT. But those are aplication where the concrete is not supposed to take forces of any kind.

Wilfried