2023-06-24 07:04:00
Bienvenido Alonso, an engineer at Navantia and a professor at the Naval School of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, assures LA RAZÓN that it is still early to know what caused the “catastrophic implosion” reported by the authorities directing the search operation for the Titan submersible who disappeared on Sunday while trying to reach the Titanic wreckage with five passengers on board. Alonso ensures that the possible cause of the failure does not have to originate exclusively from the hull material.
What technical failures could the Titan submersible have suffered?
There are countless risks, the environment is tremendously hostile: poisoning of the atmosphere by carbon dioxide, oxygen depletion, fire, loss of control, loss of energy (a “blackout” or blackout), collision, leak, ” fall” towards the bottom due to sudden changes in the salinity of the outside water, entrapment with external obstacles… For a well-maintained and well-piloted submersible, with an experienced crew that does not take risks in navigation, the most common technical failures may be the loss of control of the submersible due to failure in the “thrusters” (propellers) or a “blackout”, and after them, the problems derived from the control of the interior atmosphere.
It is said that there has been a “catastrophic implosion” and the material of the Titan’s hull, made with carbon fiber instead of metal components, has been unofficially targeted. Could that be the origin of the implosion?
Without analyzing the remains it is not possible to know if the implosion was the real cause of the accident. In the event that the catastrophic (and without warning) implosion had indeed been the cause of the accident, it need not have been the material of the hull. It may have been, for example, the front skylight, or the union of the fiber of the central helmet to the closing crown, or the bolts that join the crown of the central helmet to the titanium hemisphere… Without thoroughly analyzing the remains the cause of the accident cannot be determined. This is like an aviation accident, the experts who arrive at the scene of the accident point to a preliminary cause, but only at the end of the investigation, with the analysis of remains, can conclusions be given about the causes.
What materials should be incorporated by submersibles that go down to thousands of meters into the sea?
The resistant hulls of submersibles that descend thousands of meters deep are usually made of titanium alloys, with a spherical shape. Sometimes they are built with connected spheres (like the DSRV) and in some cases a central (short) cylindrical hull closed by two hemispheres is used, like the Titan. There are cases of vehicles with a very high-strength steel hull, but the thicknesses necessary to withstand the pressure are so great that the steel spheres are too heavy and require very large outer hulls to provide buoyancy, which makes them impractical. Just as important as the alloy is the perfection with which the sphere is built. Small circularity or sphericity defects cause large increases in internal stresses that can cause the sphere to collapse at pressures much lower than those calculated. The use of composite materials in a strong hull to reach depths of this magnitude is novel, which is to say unproven.
What are the differences between a submarine and a submersible?
The main difference is the type of work for which each one has been built. A submarine is a military ship. Therefore, it carries weapons, has great autonomy (for patrols of several thousand miles and more than 40 days, for example) and large crews, so its size is commensurate (more than 50 m in length). It doesn’t go down to much height and its priority is to be silent and relatively fast. Elevation and heading are controlled with rudders. A submersible, however, is a civilian vessel. They do not carry weapons, they are usually small (less than 10 m in length), with small crews and little autonomy. They usually have mother ships, which deploy them in work areas. Those who support oceanography are usually asked to go down to a high altitude, they have tools for sample collection and specific sensorization. Speed and silence are not priorities. The height and course are controlled with “thrusters”, propelling propellers in different directions that allow all kinds of displacements and turns.
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