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Chrisofedf — Underwater Recovery
#conceptart #conceptdesign #sea #submarine #submissive #underwater #oceran
Published: 2019-06-13 15:54:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 4990; Favourites: 150; Downloads: 60
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Description
An old project from a year back that I've just got round to finishing. Basically an underwater version of the CIA's Project Azorian, complete with grabs and a moon pool. Basically just taking the mini sub Alvin and scaling it up to fairly ludicrous sizes.Related content
Comments: 16
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Very Cool,almost Feels like a Scene from a Sci-Fi Film made it the 60s!
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Nicely done! Of course there could be version floating around in International Rescue colors...
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IR are probably a bit more high tech
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I approve. Not that anybody was waiting on, or expecting my seal of approval. Just the techno-nerd in me appreciates, and endorses your creativity.
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That's very good work but surely they would have to close the moon-pool if it goes much more deeper?
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Pardon for the interruption. Theoretically, they would just need to pressurize the moon-pool compartment. A moon-pool, regardless of the pressure, would maintain a compartment of air. Much like a glass turned upside-down and put into the water. Yes, at lower depths, the pressure would push the level of water up in the glass, but it doesn't compress that much.
In the case of a pressurized moon-pool compartment, it might just be similar (but opposite) to being in an airplane with your ears popping going from pressurized to non-pressurized areas of the vessel, depending on the amount of pressure required to maintain the water level inside the moon-pool. Too much pressure inside, and the air would crush the same as if they were in the water, but you don't need an equal pressure inside to outside. You want a lower pressure inside so the air stays inside. Much like electricity, air pressure follows the path of least resistance.
The main problem with a moon-pool at increased depths, regardless of internal pressure, is to stop the vessel from rolling over. Much like a hot air balloon, the lifting force wants to be at the top. You can have a hole at the bottom, but as the pressure increases, you need a greater weight below it so it doesn't up-end. If you don't believe me, try inverting a drinking glass and going to the bottom of a deep pool. The lower you go, the harder it is to keep the open end of the glass pointed down.
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Yes I have a basic understanding of how it work, thank you. But consider this...
The air pressure in a moon pool compartment would keep the water from rising, but this would be fine at a certain depth, like down to XXXft or XXXm.
However the deeper you go, the stronger the water pressure which would, and as you correctly pointed out, push the water level up. To maintain the water level, you would need to equals the air pressure (as long as it is not too much for the rest of the submarine), but the more air pressure there is, the more dangerous it is for the crew. I read somewhere that the maximum pressure a human could be able to cope would be somewhere between 50 times to 100 times the normal air pressure. Let's just use a round rough figure, the pressure increase one atmosphere for every 10 meters of water depth, so at a depth of say 1000m, that is 100 times the pressure, which may start to be too much for the human to cope with.
Also, if you "have to" go into the moon pool bay, you would need an airlock between the moon pool compartment and the rest of the submarine. You can't just open the door from the normal pressure side and waltz into the moon pool bay with a higher pressure. You would need to go in the airlock, increase pressure, then go into the moon pool bay, but in an emergency, that's too slow.
Thus and therefore, the crew would have to leave the moon pool bay when the pressure is too strong for them to work safety, as they go much more deeper than a certain depth where the normal air pressure is not strong enough to cope with the stronger water pressure. Specially when you consider the size of the moon pool in that artwork, which look a lot like a swimming pool, so I would assume a bigger compartment, therefore needing more air pressure.
Don't forget that a diving bell which is much smaller, would have a moon pool that's about the size of a manhole in the road, so a diving bell could go a little more deeper, not all the way down, but it could go a little more deeper and still be okay enough for the crew.
Ergo: If the submarine have to go much more deeper (say deeper than 500m or 750m or whatever) then the crew have to leave the moon pool for their safety, so what's the point of having an open moon pool? May as well close it. If something goes wrong, it takes more time to close the moon pool doors, so may as well close it in advance.
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In my previous comment, I actually had gone into greater depth about the concept of a pressurized vestibule as a buffer between a moon-pool to the rest of the vessel, but had deleted it all for the sake of brevity. I've been a surface ship designer for about 25 years, yet I didn't get into submarines too much. All I can tell you is, surface ships use "airlocks" AND "(pressurized) vestibules" in various ways. I think, that an "airlock" is used when you go from an "exterior" environment to an "interior" environment, while a vestibule acts as a commonplace buffer between two differently pressurized locations without changing it's interior pressure. In other words, an airlock has more drastic pressure changes within it's own environment.
Regardless.
Yes, as you pointed out, after XXX fathoms a moon-pool would need to have a pressurized door to keep the moon-pool water level at a set level. In effect and using my earlier presumption, it would need to have an airlock on the outside hull. In that regard, yes, at a set depth, you would likely close the moon-pool doors. I guess it depends on what depths the vessel runs at the most, whether they have the moon-pool exterior doors left open, or always closed (or even uses a moon-pool).
However, as I stated in the previous comment (and had gone into greater depth (no pun intended) but deleted parts for brevity), if you pressurized a moon-pool with an equal amount of air pressure to the outside pressure, then the air would likely push itself out of the moon-pool all on it's own.
I think, you think: if a vessel goes down 15 fathoms, then the water level in a moon-pool must go up a substantial amount, or need to be pressurized in an immense way to compensate. As far as I know, this isn't the case.
Regardless, moon-pool compartments are considered "wet decks" and not a "dry space." So they allow that water levels inside such a space can ebb and flow due to the pitch of the deck.
Just remember that a moon-pool is generally more suitable as a fast/easy access for scuba/skin divers. After a certain depth, a pressurized suit is needed to combat both pressure and hypothermia and thus a moon-pool becomes a fancy extravagance. What the operating depth of a vessel is, probably determines whether it would utilize a moon-pool, or not.
Also, "underwater recovery" is more likely to deal with depths that a scuba-diver can reach. Beyond that depth, recovery isn't likely to occur because all hands are more than likely lost. In other words, all oceans don't go down as deep as the Marianas Trench, standardly.
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