----- 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