INTRODUCTION

The two authors of this book have been involved in the design of sub-
marines for the Royal Navy for upwards of thirty years, and have also
been involved on and off in the teaching of submarine design for much of
that time. They both have connections with Vickers Shipbuilding and
Engineering Limited (VSEL) the only builders of submarines in the
U.K., Louis Rydill as a design consultant and Roy Burcher as the VSEL
Professor of Subsea Design and Engineering at University College
London (UCL). Roy Burcher runs a postgraduate design course at
UCL, which is attended by students from many countries.
With this background, we are only too well aware of the dearth of text-
books on submarine design and engineering. There are also relatively
few technical papers on the subject. There was a seminal paper in 1960,
published by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers of
the U.S.A., entitled Naval Architectural Aspects of Submarine Design by
Arentzen and Mandel, which we regard as an outstanding contribution
to the subject but, no doubt because of security issues involved in mili-
tary submarine design and operation, that splendid opening up of the
vistas made possible by the advent of nuclear propulsion for submarines
has subsequently become largely closed off to view.
Yet there is still much about submarine design and engineering which
can be said without risk of offending against security obligations. The
course at U C L is, in fact, completely unclassified and is open to all
prospective students with the appropriate qualifications. This book
draws on the authors' experience in devising and mounting that course,
without going into either the detailed theoretical source material pro-
vided or the computer programmes available, which are invaluable in
enabling students' submarine exercises to proceed so far in concept
design evaluation in a matter of several weeks.
The book is primarily intended to serve as an introduction to the
process of designing a submarine by providing a grounding in the princi-
ples involved. The emphasis is more on creation and synthesis of con-
cepts and less on methods of analysis, though some aspects of the analy-
sis are treated where we consider they are necessary for an understanding
of the factors which shape a submarine design. The book should be suit-

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 Xii INTRODUCTION

able for naval architects and engineers with a marine background who
are about to embark on a career which might take them into the fields of
submarine design and engineering, construction, operation and support
in service. We would wish to emphasise that it is at least as important for
those engineers who might be involved in any of those activities to appre-
ciate the rather special considerations which determine why submarines
are configured the way they are and operate in the way they do, as it is for
naval architects working more directly on design.
Because our experience is with military submarines we have focused
on them in our text. We consider that much of what we say can be
applied to any manned underwater vehicle, but suggest that the design
and engineering considerations relevant to unmanned underwater vehi-
cles are sufficiently different to necessitate caution in extrapolation from
the technical base we describe.
It will be observed that we have chosen to write throughout the book
in the first person/plural mode. This is not only in the hope of avoiding
the stiffness that can result with the impersonal mode, but also to convey
that much of what we express is our opinion of the way things are (or
ought to be) in submarine design.

FORMAT OF THE BOOK

We encountered some difficulty in structuring the contents of the book.
This was because each aspect is so closely interrelated to the others that
it is difficult to treat any one in isolation. For that reason there is some
element of repetition as the same topic arises in different contexts.
We start with a chapter on the general principles and structure of the
design process which apply to any large engineering project but with
submarine design as the principal objective. Succeeding chapters
approach the design problem from different points of view so that, hope-
fully, a grasp of the variety of considerations is obtained before returning
to the approach to Concept Design of a submarine.
In the second chapter we take a brief look at the history of the subma-
rine from a particular perspective: those vessels which we believe repre-
sent milestones marking out the evolution of the submarine towards its
present day manifestations.
We then turn to the basis of naval architecture - the consideration of
the hydrostatics of a submarine which has to operate both at the surface
and fully submerged. This poses constraints which permeate the whole
of submarine design.
The next chapter is allied to the previous one in that it looks at the dis-
position of weight and space and how these considerations govern the
sizing of the submarine.
As a unique feature of the submarine we go on to discuss the diving
capability of the vessel and the configuration aspects of pressure hull

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 INTRODUCTION Xlll

structure to withstand sea pressure at depth. We have tried to convey an

understanding of the function of the structure whilst deliberately exclud-
ing much detail of structural analysis which is a specialist topic in its own
right. For those who wish to go further there are a number of references
listed at the end of the book.
The next subject considered is the powering of the submarine. In our
context this includes a discussion of speed requirements and submerged
endurance. The search for energy economy leads to preferred shapes of
the outer hull form and the selection of propulsion devices.
The demands of structure and powering in the configuration of the
hull lead in the next chapter to a discussion of the architecture of a sub-
marine - how best to arrange the various demands for space within the
close confines of the hull geometry.
A submarine is free to move in all directions when submerged but
there are limits, and the next chapter gives consideration to the control
of a submarine over the range of speeds. This is dictated by the geometry
adopted and leads to possible limits of operational freedom in the inter-
ests of safety.
The operation of a submarine requires special systems to be fitted. A
chapter is devoted to the considerations that lead to the sizing and disposi-
tion of these systems so that due allowance can be made for them in the
design. The overall designer must allocate adequate budgets and define
the duties so that the specialist designers can provide the required systems.
The aspects of how the submarine is to be built and where costs arise
are then addressed. Though only indirectly influencing the submarine
design process, they are important aspects to be borne in mind through-
out the design.
In the final chapter we return to the process of generating concept
designs of a submarine to meet the operational requirements. A number
of approaches are suggested by which a designer, though addressing
them individually, might use more than one in arriving at a tenable solu-
tion. We argue against any rigidity or rule formulation for this process as
this can inhibit the freedom to innovate which is an essential feature of
Concept Design.
In the course of writing the chapters we have generated some material
which, though relevant, represented diversions from our main theme. In
some cases these are explanations or descriptions whose value would
depend on the background of the reader. These have been included as
Appendices.
Finally we would observe that throughout the book we make reference
to 'the designer'. This term is used for convenience but should not be
taken literally. The design of a submarine involves the efforts of many
engineers and scientists and so we use the term to represent the team
which may vary in number during the process of design and building.

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