----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 1:33
PM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Composite Hull
Calculations
Ok... I've long been gathering info. etc. of
prospective hull designs for a particular style of "submarine" I'm thinking of
at the very least drawing plans for. Issue I'm having at this time of
course is strength. I've opted to use a contractor to build a good
Carbon-steel shell for me (my father is in the vacuum tank business), as they
can be relatively inexpensive. HOWEVER, it gets pricey when you get
anything over 1/8" thickness. 1/4" seems the sweet spot, although I've
seen 3/8" as well. Even still, this isnt enough, and typically
tank manufacturers dont use 537 steel in their construction.
My PLAN was to simply use the shell as a template
to lay carbon fiber over. The more I thought about it, the more it made
sense. Not only would the CF protect the steel from the elements, but
it's also stronger, albeit ridiculously buoyant. The other negative is
you cant get adequate EM signals out of anything made from the stuff, so this
means many through-hulls :( All in all, a good
tradeoff if you asked me. My ideas to get around the buoyancy
issue is simply designing it as a lead-lined double hull. In my mind,
I'm thinking super easy to construct although there are many steps (the nature
of composite construction), but ridiculously strong and reliable. As
well, it could be more easily broken-down for xport or drydock. The
outer-hull would be ambient.
Anyways, I'm having trouble dealing with the darn
math. I have HullCalc, but it's only setup for steel and I'm having
trouble even getting specs. on various steel chemistry that I could easily
plug into the program. Does anyone know of a good all-around prog. to
calculate this stuff? And where's a good place to find the material
specs. to plug into the programs?
Thanks
Shawn