Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] concrete Submersible ?

[Lew Clayman <lew_clayman@yahoo.com>]

--- MarkR1970@aol.com wrote:
> Marko,
>    I read a magazine article several years ago about submarines constructed 
> mainly from concrete. I think it was in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics 
> or other similar publication. It's been several years ago so I don't remember
> a lot about what it said. I do remember it was concerning countries like Iraq
> building such submarines because they were very cheap to build compared to a 
> regular sub, they could dive to insane depths and withstand the pressures, 
> and they were nearly impossible to distinguish from the ocean floor with 
> sonar when bottomed. About the only other thing I remember is that they 
> didn't use any ballast tank system but instead used massive vertical 
> thrusters to control depth and to surface. 

Scientific American, c 1988, IIRC had a good article about them.  The Soviet
Union (as it then was) had a research program on these.  Don't know if it ever
happened.  

Concrete is far less dense than steel, so the ballasting problem is greater,
hence the thrusters IIRC.

-Lew, who has considered wood 

=====
"In baseball, you don't know nothin'."
             - Yogi Berra
=====

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