On a submarine...
Discussion
If you read Edward Youngs book 'One of our Submarines' he describes how their ears would pop when the main hatch was opened after surfacing. The reason being the compressed air systems had tiny leaks that slowly pressurised the inside of the hull while dived but at such a slow rate that nobody noticed. When the hatch was opened the pressure equalised and their ears would pop.
Read this recently: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Wolves-Extraordinary-B...
In it there are examples of subs being pressurised to the extent that when when the hatch is opened people are sucked out, never to be seen again. Kind of like a cork out of a bottle.
It also says that they would sometimes voluntary pressurise the hull to a few pounds, helped stopped leaks or aid buoyancy.
Worth a read, back then a submarine was a dodgy place to be even if no-one was depth charging you.
In it there are examples of subs being pressurised to the extent that when when the hatch is opened people are sucked out, never to be seen again. Kind of like a cork out of a bottle.
It also says that they would sometimes voluntary pressurise the hull to a few pounds, helped stopped leaks or aid buoyancy.
Worth a read, back then a submarine was a dodgy place to be even if no-one was depth charging you.
yer, the subs are mostly at atmospheric pressure, you are right that there are HP air leaks but we simply start the air compressors which suck from inside the sub to top up the bottle groups, this reduces the pressure inside and keeps the bottle groups topped up. If there becomes a small pressure difference which is normally a slight vacuum (caused by not diving with the bottle groups fully charged up)then this is broken at every PD run. hope that helps (from an ex-RN submariner)
A submariner once told me that in Diesel boats, they hated using the snorkel (snorting) - which was an air intake/exhaust mast they could raise to allow them to run the diesels to charge the batteries whilst remaining submerged. Apparently the snorkel would frequently become briefly submerged in which case the diesels would suck the air out of the inside of the boat causing rapid and painful drops in air pressure - and equally painful increases in pressure when the snorkel cleared the surface.
http://www.rnsubs.co.uk/Dits/Articles/snort.php
Take the tour of HMS Alliance at the Sumbarine Museam at Gosport if you get the chance. It's fasciniating and the tour guides are all ex-submariners - if they see you're interested you can get them talking they have some incredible stories.
http://www.rnsubs.co.uk/Dits/Articles/snort.php
Take the tour of HMS Alliance at the Sumbarine Museam at Gosport if you get the chance. It's fasciniating and the tour guides are all ex-submariners - if they see you're interested you can get them talking they have some incredible stories.
Robb F said:
Surely they would still pop as its hard to keep the pressure constant.
Same way an airliner's cabin is pressurised by your ears still pop on take off.
Just a guess.
aircraft are pressurised to the equivalent of a few thousand feet (9000 i think?), so you still get pressure changes when ascending or descending. Same way an airliner's cabin is pressurised by your ears still pop on take off.
Just a guess.
Hooli said:
HoHoHo said:
Answer is that Subs keep the water pressure out, air pressure stays the same regardless of how deep you are.
And your ears don't pop.
Except that the sub shrinks slightly due to the massive pressures outside at depth...And your ears don't pop.
OldJohnnyYen said:
Hooli said:
Except that the sub shrinks slightly due to the massive pressures outside at depth...
Is that why the old ones would leak when they came to the surface? they where designed that way iirc.
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