Submarine

History

Operation

The submarine obeys two great principles, the Archimedes' principle and the Principe of Pascal which apply to any immersed body.

Archimedes' principle

“ Any body plunged in a fluid receives on behalf of this one a vertical push directed upwards, and from size equal to the weight of the volume of the fluid moved . ”

If the weight of the ship is lower than the water weight of immersed volume, it floats; conversely it runs. The submarine, to plunge, fills entirely of water of the ballast S so that its weight about equal to is pushed Archimedes and refines then its weight with the means of cases of adjustment (rulers), at the time of an operation known as of weighed . In diving, the submarine is in water like an airship in the air; one can also say that it floats between two water. This is why with the design, the weight of the submarine is studied with precision and defines the volume of the ballasts. The volume of the rulers makes it possible to obtain the equality between the weight, variable according to its provisioning, and the push, also variable according to the density of sea water. This equality is thus obtained in some weight limit (that of the supplies of vivres and fuels) which can be embarked and of the density of sea water, limits which define the program of the submarine, i.e. its autonomy and the zones where it can sail.

To move in the vertical plan (to change immersion), the submarine uses its propulsion and the effect the speed of the threads of water on its diving ruders.

Principle of Pascal

“ On the surface of an immersed body, is exerted a pressure, in bars, perpendicular to this surface, directed towards the interior and equal to the number of tens of meters of immersion . ”

The hull of the submarine is thus subjected to a increasing Pression with the immersion which tends to crush the hull. A thick hull, of cylindrical general form, resists this pressure and shelters personal and material. This hull is built out of steel resisting and with very high yield stress (capacity of the hull compressed to return in its initial state). Its thickness is function of the maximum immersion envisaged; it is roughly necessary to increase the thickness by 10 mm to gain 100 m of immersion.

Structure and equipment

Taking into account the preceding considerations, the submarines have:

a hull interior, thick;
a thin external hull which ensures the Hydrodynamisme (physical faculty to move quickly in water) by integrating ballasts, external compartments, the antennas of the sensors, the panels and the hoppers of access on board. The ideal form for the modern submarines is that of the water drop;
of the ballasts located between the two hulls and whose filling or draining allows the taken of diving (opening of the purgings to make penetrate water in the ballast) and the return surfaces some (by expelling compressed air to empty them). On the modern submarines, the ballasts are located only at before and at the back;
of the rulers, located at the center of the submarine, filled more or less with water (water admission by pressure, draining by pump or in help by hunting with air) to adjust its weight with thorough of Archimedes;
of the diving ruders to vary the immersion, generally a pair with the back and one with before or on the solid mass. On certain submarines, the diving ruders postpones are coupled with the saffrons of the bar of direction and laid out in cross of Saint-Andrew;
a releasable ballast of safety which could allow a submarine weighed down by a water way to go up on the surface;
a reserve of compressed air supplemented by compressors of air to drive out the water of the ballasts and to make surface.

They also lay out:

of cases of plate, with before and with the back, allowing to regulate their longitudinal balance (longitudinal distribution of the weights on board), while making pass from the water of before to the back and reciprocally;
of a solid mass, integral part of the hull external and sheltering the unit of the periscopic masts hissables (periscopes, various antennas and tube of air) and allowing to ensure the day before and navigation on the surface;

of a propulsion by electrical motors, in the majority of the cases, except for certain nuclear submarines which directly use steam turbines as driving of propulsion (the latter can also have electrical motors of help);
of a propeller, generally having many blades of big size;
an energy source:

is electric fencers reloaded by generators coupled to diesel engines or anaerobic devices in the case of the traditional submarines;
is, for the nuclear submarines, a nuclear reactor feeding out of vapor of the turbos-alternators (and possibly of the turbines of propulsion). All the nuclear submarines have moreover a secondary energy source made up of the diesel engine unit, generating and accumulators;

of the systems of regeneration of the interior atmosphere:

for the traditional submarines, of which the atmosphere is regenerated with each walk with the Schnorchel, it acts of back-up systems: chemical candles with oxygen and containing soda lime absorbing carbonic gas;
factory oxygen by electrolysis of sea water and carbonic gas absorber on board nuclear submarines;

of one or more hopper of evacuation, for the rescue of the crew and possibly used to release plungers.

The military submarines lay out moreover:

of a device allowing the operation of the diesel engines the periscopic immersion, tubes air (Schnorchel) and exhaust in water;
of a system of day before and detection, mainly acoustic, composed of passive and active Sonar S, only sensors being able to be used in diving. With the periscopic immersion, the submarine can use via masts hissables means of detection, electromagnetic credit (Radar) or liability (detecting of radars), Optronique (Périscope S of day before and attack with which are associated video devices, of infra-red vision and amplification of light);
of a system of Navigation, classically including/understanding gyroscopic, log and Sounder, generally Inertial unit and receiving compass GPS on a periscopic antenna and sometimes of a periscope of astral aiming (allowing to make a not astronomical with the periscopic immersion);
of a system of weapons allowing to launch in diving of the torpedes, the mines, the anti-ship missiles, the cruise missiles, and for SNLE of the ballistic missiles. Certain submarines were equipped with anti-aircraft missiles (mainly against helicopters). They in addition have systems of launching of lures sonar and anti-torpedes.
of a system of combat (a central calculator) which ensures the integration of the three preceding systems and makes it possible to carry out calculations necessary to the determination of the kinematics of detections, to present the tactical situation and to calculate the firing datas;
of means of communication acoustics (underwater telephone) and radio: receivers HF, U VHF, and of satellite communications with antennas on periscopic, receiving masts with very low frequency with towed telegraphic antenna or on a framework in the solid mass (the waves VLF can indeed be received with a few meters of immersion) and, for certain submarines, towed antenna U/VHF;

Types and uses

The submarines are generally classified, on the one hand according to their use (civil or military), on the other hand according to their mode of generation of energy and propulsion (nuclear or conventional), which conditions their design mainly.

Civil submarines

Military submarines

Submarines of fiction

the most famous remainder the Nautilus of the Nemo captain, hero of Twenty thousand miles under the seas of Jules Verne.
the submarine in form of Squale, invented by Professor Tournesol, appears in the Cartoon the Treasury of Rackham the Red of Hergé.
In the techno-thrillers, the Master remains Tom Clancy which created in particular the Red submarine October in the novel With the continuation of October Red , derived from the Classe Typhoon and equipped with a quasi-undetectable propulsion by propellers under a water pipeline which traverses all the length of the submarine. But it is rather about an exception, the other submarines put in scene like US Dallas (SSN-700) (in the novels belonging to the “Ryanverse”) or the US Cheyenne (SSN-773) in Code SSN, are, them, authentic.
Another author of techno-thrillers, Patrick Robinson, always created its fictions in the world of the submarines. Several of them are fictitious: the US Shark in “Mutiny on Shark” or Xia III Chinese in “US Seawolf”.
a best-seller, Das Boot , was written by Lothar-Günther Buchheim in the years 1970, and was adapted to the cinema (with the same title, and same success) in 1981. Inspired of actual facts, this novel tells the life of a crew of German U-boot at the time of a mission, during the 2 world war.
Michael DiMercurio, a former submariner, wrote many novels from which the history occurs in the submarines and (for its last works) in the future. It thus created the Destiny II and Destiny III (entirely automated) Japan board, the Russian Kaliningrad or the US Devilfish (class Piranha then another: SSNX ). But it also uses existing submarines, like the Los Angeles , the Seawolf or the Virginia .
Marc Dugain renames the Russian submarine “Koursk” " Oskar" in its novel an ordinary execution (2007) and revives its dramatic shipwreck.

Sources

General references

Ulrich Gabler, Submarine Design , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 2nd edition, 2000.
Paul E. Sullivan and Barry F. Tibbitts, chap. LVI “Naval Submarines”, in.

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