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My educated (a little bit of engineering at uni) perspective is: Completely idiotic to build a submarine out of carbon and not have the means for a complete ins
by c00lio 3y ago
My educated (a little bit of engineering at uni) perspective is: Completely idiotic to build a submarine out of carbon and not have the means for a complete inspection for manufacturing defects as the original article suggests.
Carbon, as you correctly note, needs to be very homogeneous. Bubbles, lamination defects or -god beware- fissures lead to failure, of the sudden, unannounced and total kind. And not only is it necessary to check after production, but also after regular short intervals of use, because a mere scratch in the carbon can be fatal.
- johnvanommen 3y agoIt seems utterly bizarre to make a sub out of carbon fiber. The advantage of CF is low weight. But who cares what a submarine weighs? Some of the articles about it's construction indicate that many of the engineers were aerospace engineers. I wouldn't want a submarine engineer designing a plane, and vice versa.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tim333 3y agoI was thinking about that but a steel sub can only really weigh as much as the same volume of water which probably limits things if you are going to 4000m. Too much weight and it'd sink like a stone.
- civilitty 3y ago> The advantage of CF is low weight. But who cares what a submarine weighs? The heavier a sub is the bigger the ballast tanks have to be to compensate and the more energy is wasted on moving it, just like any other powered vehicle.
- zardo 3y agoDo they even have ballast tanks? I saw mention of steel ballast they drop at the bottom. The biggest benefit of reduced weight on this thing would be minimizing the size of the crane and surface vessel needed to deploy and recover it.
- Jonnerz 3y agoIt's very bizarre. It's the first thing you learn about in materials engineering, in any mechanical/aeronautical engineering degree. We even made our own carbon fibre models (some with intentional defects) and tested failing them at my Uni. I even get worried about cracks in my road bike. These guys are going 3km+ under water... It's insane.