sub build underway christmas 2011

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by tugboat, Jan 5, 2012.

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  1. Jeremy Harris
    Joined: Jun 2009
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    Jeremy Harris Senior Member

    Very true, and largely as a result of insufficient research and poor material choices, coupled with some unrealistic requirements with regard to range, sea keeping, operational depth etc. The irritating thing is that small subs can be built and safely operated if sensibly designed and well-understood materials, like steel, are used.

    I remember spending a day around 35 years ago helping to plaster a 40ft ferro fishing boat hull. The owner started the day by impressing on us all the need to complete the entire hull before any of the mix started to cure and the need for each of us to ensure that the mix was uniformly applied and pushed right through the mesh armature with no voids. It seems that the black hull above was cast/plastered in sections, which I've always understood to be completely the wrong thing to do when making any structural concrete component.
     
  2. idkfa
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    idkfa Senior Member

    If you're going to live in it, then you'll want the enjoy the view!

    Bolt together the donuts to the welded steel systems. Launch and dive in!
     

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  3. upchurchmr
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    upchurchmr Senior Member

    You know the hull above is a joke when you see the fins ahead of the prop made to be fixed.

    Perhaps the owner/ sucker would like to steer the boat?

    Removing myself from this subscription.
     
  4. Submarine Tom

    Submarine Tom Previous Member

    No, the fins are behind the prop! It's a puller silly, can't you see?

    Steering etc is achieved by moving around in the sub. You walk forward to descend, aft to ascend, strd to go right and port to go left. Or get one of your victims, no I mean volunteers, to do the walking around for you.

    And if you want to do a barrel role, everybody walks to port and simply keeps on walking until your done rolling. If you do it forward, you can get a death spiral going, cool.

    I think we're done here, no?

    -Tom
     
  5. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    You can tell because of the propeller. It is backwards. Unsubscribing now.

    This is just another delivery method to help build artificial reefs.
     
  6. Submarine Tom

    Submarine Tom Previous Member

    Hoyt,

    I've missed your point. Sorry, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

    Yes, it's backwards, that's what makes the fins behind the prop. It would also make the prop a "puller" not a "pusher". Why one would do this is beyond me.

    -Tom
     
  7. Jeremy Harris
    Joined: Jun 2009
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    Jeremy Harris Senior Member

    Another scary thing about that thing is that someone was daft (and wealthy) enough to invest in having it built.

    Helps to prove the aphorism "a fool and his money are soon parted".
     
  8. Submarine Tom

    Submarine Tom Previous Member

    Or,

    "There is no correlation between money and brains."

    -Tom
     
  9. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    I've always thought it would be fun to have Jacquie Cousteau's diving saucer but with some bigger and better windows. Maybe even cast the thing in acrylic. I could never afford it but still, its gotta be fun.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    As current winner of "guess the fate of Wellmers 50 tonne concrete submarines " ( it will never get launched ) ........

    I noted these two comments on the proposed project :

    1) "security blankets such as rubber stamps and -theory- math and conventional if this is your methodology...remember conventional came about on empirical testing and failures...not on paper-"

    I flagged this as a sign of future problems. Math Theory has never been a "security blanket" to the educated person - it has always been an "this might work in the real world" indicator. Without it - you are just going to waste a lot of time and money.

    2) materials- pressure hull- concrete/rebar steel or ferro-cement- or fer-a-lite.

    Uhuh - so he was announcing the grand project without even knowing what the main construction material is going to be.

    We never did get an answer from Mr Wellmer to :-

    "What Kind of Concrete are you going to try first ?"

    But its all academic now - Tugboat has left the building.

    My guess at the fate of this project - "It wont get past setup stage"
     
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  11. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    I'm coming in late on this I know but, what was the reasoning behind abandoning steel as a prime building material. I'd think it was about the most cost effective material for a sub.

    better yet how about a piece of 60" or 80" steel pipe and weld a cap on either end. Why pour concrete at all ????????
     
  12. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    Cement is cheaper, and cement has the advantage of being able to be moulded in complex, massive curves and bends, unlike steel which is hard to cast in difficult shapes.

    That was the Wellmer theory - but I could never get over the difficulty of incorporating steel structures like hatches, anchor ports, and other structures that have to be steel. The rates of expansion and attachment methods seem fraught with problems.

    Personally, I could never get over the problems of registration and insurance that this type of structure would require to operate.
     
  13. BPL
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    BPL Senior Member

  14. bntii
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    bntii Senior Member

    UC3 is said to have cost 200k USD and volunteer labor.

    Seems low to me but steel is cheap so....

    The designer Peter Madsen is a Aerospace Engineer so I am sure he used a bit of math when designing the boat.
    :)

    I am guessing but it appears that a sub is a deceptively simple machine.
    The engineering must be there but one might not notice it eh?

    Boston- what we really need is someone in the family to step up and build one of these things.
    Interested??
     

  15. Petros
    Joined: Oct 2007
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    Petros Senior Member

    I do not know why one would bother to build one at all when you can buy working former Soviet bloc subs for scrap prices. A number of those available on the surplus market.

    If you intended to go deep the problems can be quite large, if you stay at snorkel depth than fresh air not so much a problem. buy why bother.
     
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