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Gents,
Hard / soft ballast tanks....what
exactly are we talking about here ? Hard ones made of...hard material and
soft ones made of inflatable bags or something ?
In contemplating my design for the
fore and aft main ballast tanks, it occured to me that the construction of
these tanks does not have to be up to the same standard as the pressure hull,
even if purged at depth, due to the fact that the forcing of air into the tanks
to purge the water creates an "ambient" enviroment within the tank, equalizing
the pressures put upon it. Is my line of thinking correct ? In other
words, as far as the ballast tanks are concerned, it shouldn't matter if
the internal and external pressures are equal due to the tank being filled with
water, or compressed air. As long as your high pressure air supply has
enough psi to force the water out, it should be possible to blow the tanks at
any depth. Again, am I on the right track with this thinking ? One
of the reasons I am enquiring about this is I am wondering if it's possible to
use fore/aft main ballast tanks as trim tanks as well ? For eg. if I'm at
a depth of 50M in my 1ATM sub (with fore/aft tanks filled with water), and I
discover that my trim isn't quite right, that I require a little lift in the
front, can I put a little air into the fore main ballast tank, or will this
damage the tank since the construction of it is quite light. I suppose if
it is possible to blow the tanks at any depth, you would want some sort of check
valve to bleed off the excess pressure that would occur from surfacing, or risk
blowing your ballast tanks up, sinking, and dying.
Myles.
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