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In an effort to assist those PSUB designers
just starting out I might suggest an article found at the following URL: http://www.newavesys.com/spiral.htm,
entitled “The Design Spiral for
Computer-Aided Boat Design”. While it is pointed at surface
vessel design, the methodology is applicable to PSUBS. There are four steps in
any vessel design and until a given step is 100% resolved, you shouldn’t
move forward other wise you will waste a lot of good money and/or injure
yourself. If there is difficulty in a given step, you need to move back to the
beginning of that step and choose another approach. An issue may crop up and
you have to even backup a step. No materials should be purchased until the
complete design is finalized. The Needlefish
project is a perfect example of what happens when this process is not followed,
a neat looking PSUB, all of the best materials and instrumentation, but unmanageable
stability. Excerpting from the paper, the summarized
four steps are: The
overall boat design process can be described by the following steps: Step 1.
The Design Statement. - Define the purpose of
the boat and quantify and list the major design attributes in decreasing order
of importance. Include a measure of merit for the vessel, if needed. Step 2.
The Conceptual Design Phase. - This
step determines whether
the boat described in the design statement is feasible and how you will have to modify
the stated goals in the design statement to achieve a successful boat design.
Principal dimensions, general arrangements, major weights items, and powering
options are chosen and concept drawings are produced. This information is often
included in a design proposal which is submitted to a prospective client. This
step is often done on speculation
in the hopes that the client will select the design for construction. Step 3
The Preliminary Design Phase. - This step determines
the details of exactly how
the boat will implement the results from the conceptual design process. The
hull shape is finalized and more exact calculations are performed, including
stability, performance, and structural calculations. Step 4. The Detailed Design
Phase. - This step is concerned
with producing the "deliverables" of the design project: a faired set
of lines, a table of offsets, arrangement drawings, structural drawings,
construction details, and specifications. Following this program may not guarantee a
perfect sub, but you will have an optimal design that should work (and save use
a lot of rudimentary questions! J).
This is meant to assist beginners and not as I have previously been accused of
looking down my nose at the newbies. R/J2 Respectfully, Jay K. Jeffries Andros Is., It
is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without
accepting it. |