[PSUBS-MAILIST] Testing designs (was: Scuttle valves & Divorce Court)

[Michael B Holt <tlohm@juno.com>]

On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 06:00:05 -0800 Steven Mills  writes:
>
>I'm searching and gathering a suite of tools to test out your sub
design.
>And anyone elses' design for that matter. Performance-wise that is.

Testing?   Let's put the thing in the water and see what happens!

>There isn't one definitive package. I'm taking my cue from that AUV
report
>that I posted some time back. They used proEngineer, ANSYS, and a
>mesh generator, but still had to tweak the software. I've come up with
>some free software, but they don't quite hit the mark.  I'm thinking
maybe
>aerodynamic CFDs since the laminar flow and boundary layers should be
>close approximating a wind tunnel.

What's the free stuff?    How useful is it?  

I've wondered about the value of testing of the designs we discuss
there.   Did the Captain test the K-boats this way?   I suspect it never
occurred to him to do that, because of the low speed.   There's just 
no way to get more speed without adding a lot more power, which 
means more of everything else.   (What's the Cd of a K-350?  I bet
no one has ever checked.)

It's my feeling that we're going to get more from cleaning up these
shapes than we are from making them aerodynamically excellent.
But I have no solid data to bear that out.   Just an impression based
on the shapes of boats in the water.   I'd like to be very wrong about
this.

>Well, that's what I'm doing now in between ranting and keeping guard 
>over the toilet seat.

We used to worry about dead horses.  Now it's toilet seats.   We all
need new hobbies.  Would anyone like to discuss -- off list -- the 
relationship between the Enlightenment and the American Revolution?

(There is nothing in this message about scuttle valves, but I can say
something about divorce court: I'm going to be single soon!)

Back to the totally unschedulable discussion about homebuilt U-boats ....



Mike


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