Mystery Titanic Tourist Submarine Lost * Found as Debris

[Kurve]

 

[Werewolf]

This is a really good channel for anyone interested in engineering:

 

[Zidane98]

This is a really good channel for anyone interested in engineering:

I'll predict when all is said and done it will be discovered that the sub was only good for maybe 3-4 dives @ Titanic depth pressures before needing scrapping.

Which makes the use of CFRP pointless. Replace CFRP with titanium - make sure there the pressure hull has curves with no straight edges plus install a 5000m rated viewing port would make the titan completely safe.

 

[CD Xbow]

I'll predict when all is said and done it will be discovered that the sub was only good for maybe 3-4 dives @ Titanic depth pressures before needing scrapping.

Which makes the use of CFRP pointless. Replace CFRP with titanium - make sure there the pressure hull has curves with no straight edges plus install a 5000m rated viewing port would make the titan completely safe.

In these high pressure environment the bits where the meat bags go are always spheres, as cylinders are not as strong (with the same construction) as spheres, IIRC at static pressures spheres are twice as strong. It may be the sphere has further benefits wrt to withstanding dynamic forces because how even those forces are transmitted evenly through the structure. We need an engineer! Anyway it may not be possible to construct a titanium cylinder light enough. Also titanium is pretty tough to work with and I would guess a cylinder would be much easier to manufacture than a sphere, so if they could get by with a cylinder people would already be doing it. .

 

[Zidane98]

In these high pressure environment the bits where the meat bags go are always spheres, as cylinders are not as strong (with the same construction) as spheres, IIRC at static pressures spheres are twice as strong. It may be the sphere has further benefits wrt to withstanding dynamic forces because how even those forces are transmitted evenly through the structure. We need an engineer! Anyway it may not be possible to construct a titanium cylinder light enough. Also titanium is pretty tough to work with and I would guess a cylinder would be much easier to manufacture than a sphere, so if they could get by with a cylinder people would already be doing it. .

Yep. This isn't like the first jet passenger aircraft (Comet) where fatigue failure modes were not known at the altitude / pressure differential these aircraft experienced. They suffered a few accidents because of premature hull failure due to this. Lessons were learned on material thickness / strength / fatigue caused by repeated cycles of pressurisation.


Stockton Rush had all the data in the world on this. CFRP was largely untested in a submarine application and has known failure modes (delamination) that can progress quickly. Really, he should have built a pressure cylinder for testing until destruction. Test it at a pressure differential 25% greater than its pressure depth rating for a safety margin. Had that process been completed Oceangate would have an accurate gauge on how many cycles were safe for the submersible to complete titanic dives. Maybe he didn't want to know the answer as it would have made the vehicle simply uneconomic (test results would possibly show for safety reasons only 3 cycles were safe to complete before the structure began to delaminate).

Without this process it was absolutely criminal that there was not a full knock / xray inspectino of the hull after every dive. The consequences of delamination are known and catastrophic. This inspection process would have likely saved the lives of everyone on board.

 

[owen87]

Yep. This isn't like the first jet passenger aircraft (Comet) where fatigue failure modes were not known at the altitude / pressure differential these aircraft experienced. They suffered a few accidents because of premature hull failure due to this. Lessons were learned on material thickness / strength / fatigue caused by repeated cycles of pressurisation.


Stockton Rush had all the data in the world on this. CFRP was largely untested in a submarine application and has known failure modes (delamination) that can progress quickly. Really, he should have built a pressure cylinder for testing until destruction. Test it at a pressure differential 25% greater than its pressure depth rating for a safety margin. Had that process been completed Oceangate would have an accurate gauge on how many cycles were safe for the submersible to complete titanic dives. Maybe he didn't want to know the answer as it would have made the vehicle simply uneconomic (test results would possibly show for safety reasons only 3 cycles were safe to complete before the structure began to delaminate).

Without this process it was absolutely criminal that there was not a full knock / xray inspectino of the hull after every dive. The consequences of delamination are known and catastrophic. This inspection process would have likely saved the lives of everyone on board.

As I also read elsewhere, it's not as though we need to develop more technology in order to go deeper. We can already reach the bottom of the ocean, safely and repeatedly. The technology is very well known, understood and tested.

Pretty sure the Mir submersibles James Cameron went down in to film the Titanic were in use for ~ 30 years without failure.

This was a reinventing the wheel situation, where someone was trying to cut costs by ignoring pretty much every single known fact and experience in the field. Unsurprisingly, he failed.

 

[Zidane98]

As I also read elsewhere, it's not as though we need to develop more technology in order to go deeper. We can already reach the bottom of the ocean, safely and repeatedly. The technology is very well known, understood and tested.

Pretty sure the Mir submersibles James Cameron went down in to film the Titanic were in use for ~ 30 years without failure.

This was a reinventing the wheel situation, where someone was trying to cut costs by ignoring pretty much every single known fact and experience in the field. Unsurprisingly, he failed.

I expect Stockton Rush to enter the Darwin Awards for his Titan submersible efforts.

 

[Werewolf]

I expect Stockton Rush to enter the Darwin Awards for his Titan submersible efforts.

He has left behind two children, so technically ineligible for a Darwin Award!