RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Fire!

High Frank,

Chemical heat is fine but make sure it is not the type that has to absorb oxygen to work (iron based). Phase changing materials would be the only safe form of “chemical” heat.

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of David Bartsch
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 1:16 AM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Fire!

   The heating of anything aboard a submarine should be an area well researched...nothing is worse aboard a submarine than a fire!
   To minimize the need to heat the air, I would first look into how best to insulate the people tank with a fire retardant insulation such as a glue on type foam of some sort. Not only would such a barrier reduce the need to heat or cool, it would also limit how much sound is being injected into the water as this tends interfere with passive sonar reception and spooks local wildlife.
   What would you do if a fire flashed out aboard your submarine? How would you contain it? How would you guard the air your breathing while combating these flames?
   As in the outcome of the seeker accident, it was determined that training was attributed to the ability of at least one of the crewmen getting out alive.

                                              David Bartsch

From: ShellyDalg@aol.com
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:16:33 -0400
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] heated sub
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org

Hi Dean. Ya, I'll need the heaters when I come up to play "you sunk my battleship" with you.

Lake Superior IS cold. I grew up on Lake Ontario and I remember when we'd get ice flows coming off the lake. It would pile up 20 feet or better on the beach. Fun for kids playing in the ice caves and stuff. Scary when I think how stupid we were, but hey, it was lots of fun.

For heaters....well, that's a tough one. I'm very miserly with my electrical usage. I've been leaning toward a chemical solution rather than some kind of electrical resistance heater. My thought was that it'll be necessary to change out the air scrubber chemicals anyway, and a canister type thing with the scrubber chemical and another with a heater canister should be able to be incorporated into a "quick change" chamber with a small 12 volt fan. The outlet would blow clean, dry, warm air over the windows to ventilate the sub. The device will need a small condensate reservoir or trap, which would need emptying after a dive, and of course replacement of the scrubber canister and heater canister.

The trick is to make the canisters reuseable so you could carry a couple of sets, and just change the raw chemicals in the spares each day. Self heating chemicals are easy to get, and a finned two chamber canister, where the air flows over the fins, should be fairly easy to make. Pack the stuff in there, shake it up, put it into the fan unit, and warm air comes out.

My buddy has a little can thing he puts in his pocket when we ride on cold nights. He puts his hand in there and it warms right up. Good for about three hours. Seems like a larger unit with a fan could do the same thing. Haven't got that far yet, but I'm thinkin.......

Frank D.

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