By Mazlan Muslim, M.

Eng
UniKL MIMET
Structural design must be considered early in a
submersible vehicle development program soon
after general mission characteristics have been
outlined, such as operating depth, speed,
manning, endurance, and payload. Size is
obviously the predominant consideration in hull
design, and is influenced by these variables. The
structural design of the hull may be considered
in two broad divisions: the pressure hull and the
exostructure, the latter commonly called the
nonpressure hull or outer hull.
The design process generally differs for these
because of their differing functions and
design loads, but, of course, there is an
interrelationship, and the design of each
influences the other, the pressure hull being
paramount. Various failure criteria including
yielding, instability, fatigue, fracture, creep,
and corrosion greatly affect the structural
design.
The single unstiffened sphere frequently has
been used for deep operating, small
submersibles because of its attractively low
buoyancy factor. For an ideal sphere with no
stiffeners or reinforcements the buoyancy
factor is:

s

w
= densities of the shell and water,
respectively,
p = hydrostatic pressure, and

max
= maximum stress in an ideal sphere.
where

By comparison, the buoyancy factor for an
ideal cylinder with no stiffeners or
reinforcements is:

Thus, in the ideal case, the single sphere has a
33% advantage in structural efficiency. The
weight advantage of the single sphere is even
greater when compared with a cylinder with
stiffeners and reinforcements. However, when
total weights are compared, considering
hydrodynamic form and internal and external
arrangements, the net weight advantage of the
single-sphere vessel declines. Another advantage
of the single sphere is that it allows for a fairly
short and acceptably light vehicle that can be
handled by a single shipboard crane on a tender.
Thus, many of the shallower depth submersibles
are of single-sphere design, with a crew of just
two or three.
The stiffened cylinder generally permits superior
hydrodynamic form, better internal
arrangements, lighter exostructures, and lower
fabrication costs. It is also less affected by initial
geometric imperfections than shells with
compound radii of curvature. The ring-stiffened
cylinder is used less frequently for deeper
operating depths, because of its less favorable
buoyancy factor. However, there are situations
when material selection and fabrication
techniques can justify the use of ring-stiffened
cylinders down to 6100 m (20 000 ft).
Penetrations are a major design consideration.
There are local stress variations around the
penetrations that affect the design depth
limitations, as well as the cyclic life of the
pressure vessel. Small penetrations affect only
local stresses, but large penetrations could affect
the design collapse depth. An efficient
penetration design cannot be achieved simply by
compensating for the shell material removed, as
is the case for penetrations in less efficient
pressure vessels. Detailed design and analysis
techniques must be used to achieve a balanced
design (if possible), avoiding both over-
reinforcement and under-reinforcement.
For deep-depth submersibles, major penetrations
are limited to access hatches, electrical
connections, and viewports. Hydraulic
penetrations, stuffing tubes, and shafts normally
are avoided in order to minimize any possibility of
leaking.
Access hatches can be categorized as being either
of the seat type or plug type. The seat type of
hatch normally is used in relatively shallow depth
submersibles, since it is more easily fabricated
and costs less; however, it is somewhat heavier
than a plug hatch. The plug hatch generally is
used for deep-diving submersibles so as to save
weight. It is used normally in shells of uniform in-
plane stresses, such as spheres, since the
stiffening ring around the hatch in a sphere is of
uniform thickness.

The pressure hull, because of its thick scantlings,
high-performance material, and tight fabrication
tolerances, is relatively costly and constitutes a
large part of the total vehicle weight. Large
pressure-resistant structures become especially
impractical for deep-diving submarine craft. For
these reasons, the pressure hull size is minimized,
sufficient only to accommodate personnel, any
mission equipment that must be inside, system
controls, and perhaps certain emergency life
support equipment. All other components and
subsystems are placed outside the pressure hull
and, for the most part within the supportive and
protective confines of an exostructure.
Despite the importance of minimum structural weight
(which translates into maximum payload for a given
displacement and form), the influence of cost and
schedule constraints on the design are considerable
and, in fact, cannot be overstated. The demands of
tight design and construction schedules, with the
attendant lead times and associated procurement
costs for special materials and material shapes in
small quantities, serve to drive the design to a
simpler, lower-cost form, and militate against any
lengthy investigative pursuit of the "optimum"
structure. For these reasons, what may be called the
traditional design process frequently is followed, in
which alternate structural configurations in
conjunction with various alternate materials are
examined, basically using trial and error procedures,
and comparatively evaluated.
Maximizing cost-effectiveness essentially
means arriving at one of many solutions to the
design problem, posed by mission
requirements and design constraints, which
identifies the mission system best able to
accomplish the mission task(s) at least cost.
For a mission system including a manned
submersible as one of its systems, one way of
expressing this statement as an equation is:

The first term of the equation's right side is
the measure of the system's expeditiousness
in performing given underwater tasks. The
second term is the mission system's cost per
dive day, which is "bottom line" economic
data for system operations. Optimization
results from minimizing 1/CE or maximizing
CE itself. Figure 2 shows a breakdown of
considerations involved in mission system
cost-effectiveness studies.
The relationship between mission and
performance requirements is illustrated by two
examples involving the mission requirements for
(1) task-site depth and (2) details of work objects.
Task-site depth leads to the performance
requirements for maximum operating depth, D
o
,
and collapse or design depth, D
c.
The term D
o
is at
least equal to the maximum site depth while:


where F is known as the factor of safety which
accounts for structural design uncertainties.
The shallow- and deep-water columns
require brief explanations at this point; the
other environmental segments are easily
visualized. In this regard, the water column
can be viewed from three perspectives: (1)
the effect of surface waves, (2) the generation
of wavemaking resistance and (3) the
variability or constancy of environment
parameters, primarily water temperature. In
(1), the depth D
sw
separating the shallow and
deep water columns is approximately:

where is the significant surface-wave
length. Surface waves are felt above this
depth, causing motion of the submersible. In
perspective (2), the depth, D
WR
, separating
these columns is about.

where F is a factor that increases with the
speed of the submersible to a maximum
value of approximately 3.0 and d
m
is the
vehicle's maximum diameter.
In the designer's pursuit of these studies, the
submersible may be decoupled from the rest
of the mission system if certain assumptions
are made. They are that (1) the characteristics
and operating costs per year of other (I)
systems of the mission system are not
changed significantly by variations in size and
weight of the submersible design alternatives
considered and (2) all alternatives are
composed of reliable systems.
Then, the submersible's cost-effectiveness
equation may be written as:

where, for the assumptions made, it may be
further assumed that the term dive days per
year is a constant, C, for all alternatives
developed.
Dimensions estimated from volume which
pressure hull(s) must enclose. Relationships
between volumes and dimensions for various
shapes are shown in Fig. 8. One expression
for volume, (V
PH
), is
n = number of persons in pressure hull,
V
m
= cubic/man data from Fig. 9, and
C = fraction of V
PH
occupied by items inside pressure hull
other than persons. Use similar design data.
where

Envelope volumes, (V
E
)
enclosed envelopesvolumes may be
estimated from the expression:

where V
E
is the volume of displacements of
pressure hull and all external items within the
envelope plus volume of free flooding water
within envelope and C
B
is the block
coefficient relating principal dimensions and
shape which may be estimated from similar
designs.
Open-frame envelopesvolumes may be
estimated from the expression:

Envelope composed of individual shapes
volume may be estimated from the simple
expression:

Displacement of submersibleA first
estimate of displacement may be obtained
using the expression:

where P is the packing factor, derived from
similar designs, and is the specific weight
of seawater. P reflects the efficiency with
which the pressure hull(s) and external items
can be "packed" into an envelope of given
type and shape. 1.0-P is a measure of the
amount of free-flooding water filling the void
spaces within the envelope.
Energy storage capacity: The capacity of the
main electrical-energy storage system equals
the total energy requirement, the area of the
power-energy profile diagram of Fig. 10, plus
reserve energy.
Pneumatic energy storage requirements often
involves these requirements for both high
and low pressure systems; high pressure
systems are used in designs with maximum
operating depths down to about 610 m (2000
ft). In both systems,

v
1
= total volume of air stored at a working pressure of p
1
in n high-
pressure air flasks having a volume of v
F
per flask; n flasks often
are called an air bank,
p
1
= working pressure; representative values for high-pressure
systems are 16.54 10
6
Pa (2400 psig) and 20.68 10
6
Pa (3000
psig)and for low-pressure systems 9.8 10
6
Pa (1422 psig).
where

P
2
= pressure at maximum ballast-blowing
depth for high-pressure systems and pressure
at or near the surface for low-pressure
systems,
V
2
= total volume of seawater ballast which
can be expelled by a fully charged air bank
against a pressure of p
2
, and
R = a factor allowing for a reserve of storage
volume and derived from similar design data.

The pneumatic energy storage for the high
pressure system to obtain v
1
necessitates a
breakdown of v
2
. Since these systems are
often used to discharge variable as well as
main ballast, the following expression may be
used:


N
C
= number of cycles of variable ballast per dive,
v
VBC
= average volume of variable ballast expelled per
cycle against a pressure of p
2
.
where

v
MB
= total volume of main ballast seawater, and
K = fraction of total volume of main ballast
expelled against a pressure of p
2
.
For high-pressure systems, the value of K
depends on design decisions regarding initiation
of the normal and emergency ascents from the
maximum operating depth. Normal ascent may
be initiated by dropping ascent weights or by
injecting "bubbles" of high-pressure air into the
main ballast tanksthe bubbles, of course,
expanding with decreasing depth. If the bubble
scheme is used, with or without dropping ascent
weights, K may be 0.20 or less.

Classification and Applications
Remotely operated vehicles are generally classified
(MTS 1984) into six types and the primary difference
is the means of propulsion. Some typical
characteristics and applications are also shown. The
ROV is usually near neutral buoyant and thus can
hover for inspection or observation purposes using
video, sonar, or still camera.
It can also push or pull, lift, and connect or disconnect
systems using only small forces on the order of 444.8
N (100 lb) to 889.6 N (200 lb). Vehicle shapes are
typically block shape when forward speeds greater
than 3.71 kph (2 kts) are not needed, and torpedo
shaped when greater speeds are desirable. The
response of the vehicle is largely determined by the
comparison of the available thrust to the weight of the
vehicle. This thrust to weight ratio defines the
quickness of response or how fast the vehicle can
accelerate to its steady state speed.

An estimate of the speed the vehicle can move
through the water or the amount of current in
which the vehicle can hold its position is made by
equating the available thrust in a particular
direction to the drag force given by

where is the mass density of water, C
d
is the
drag coefficient that is a function of the Reynolds
number and may vary from 0.2 to 2.0, A
d
is the
projected area normal to the flow direction, and
V
c
is the current velocity or speed of the vehicle.

The available thrust for a propeller is usually
determined from the standard bollard pull tests and
this information is sometimes available from
manufacturers. It can also be estimated from the
available power by assuming that a thruster develops
about 111.2 N (25 lb) to 133.4 N (30 lb) of thrust per
horsepower (Shatto 1991). Also, the available thrust
can be theoretically determined by computing the
change in momentum of the water that is accelerated
through the thruster using

where F
T
is thruster force, is the mass density of
water and A
T
is the cross-sectional area of the
thruster's stream of water being accelerated from zero
velocity to the average velocity (V
T
) through the
thruster.

The velocity of the water through the thruster
is determined from


where N is the revolutions per minute (RPM)
of the propeller, E is the propeller efficiency,
and P is the propeller pitch. Thrusters usually
have a large hub, and its cross sectional area
is subtracted when calculating A
T
.

Thus,

where d
p
and d
h
are the propeller and hub
diameters. The thruster intake is usually not
in still water because the vehicle is moving
through the water or holding against a
current. When the thruster has a fixed pitch
and a fixed maximum speed, the thruster
force (F
T
) is reduced approximately by the
ratio of V
C
/V
T
and is expressed as

Calculation of vehicle performance requires
knowledge of the vehicle drag coefficient C
d
and
the propeller efficiency E. These parameters are
usually determined from empirical results. The
drag force of the tether should also be
considered, and the drag on a long tether can
exceed that of the vehicle.
The vertical thrust developed by the vehicle
affects the response in the vertical direction, and
it also determines the amount of weight that can
be lifted or carried by the vehicle. The amount of
weight the vehicle can lift is typically called the
dead lift weight. The amount of thrust available
for vertical acceleration is determined by
subtracting the dead lift weight.

Vertical thrust is also used to control the
vehicle attitude and to adjust the pitch angle
of the vehicle when the manipulator lifts or
drops a weight. This is only needed when the
loads to be lifted cause excessive pitch or
roll.
The ROV usually has a relatively large GB that
makes them very stable. For a typical work
vehicle, it might have a GB of 27.9 cm (11
in), a weight and buoyancy of 3500 lb and a
stiffness of 56 ft-lb/degree at zero pitch and
roll.
The angle of pitch when picking up a load can be
determined by


where H is the horizontal moment arm from the
load centerline to the ROV's vertical center of
thrust, W
L
is in-water weight of load, W
a
is the
in-air weight or buoyancy of the ROV, and BG is
the distance between center of buoyancy and
center of gravity. For the vehicle described above,
the ROV could lift a weight of 100 lb at a radius
of 2.1 m (7 ft) resulting in a pitch angle of 12.6.

The effect of the location of the center of gravity
in floating and submerged vessels is illustrated in
Figure 6-4. Lowering the center of gravity
increases the stability by increasing the
separation of the forces of weight and buoyancy.
Lowering the center of gravity can also change a
heeling moment to a righting moment.
The longitudinal separation of B and G effects the
draft and trim of the vessel. For the submerged
body, the center of buoyancy does not move, and
positive stability requires that G remain below B.
An unstable condition occurs when G moves
above B.
Overview
All submersible vehicle designs must embody operational
safety considerations. From the selection of the hull
structural material to the publication of an operational
manual, design process decisions must consider the
impact of all choices on vehicle reliability and particularly
on the safety of personnel who will operate and occupy the
submersibles.
Safety considerations touch all elements of a submersible's
design. A submersible meeting key mission requirements
relating to speed and diving and surfacing times must
consider stability while on the surface, while submerged,
and while passing through the sea-air interface at various
sea states. A particular mission may demand minimizing
time on station, thus requiring rapid handling of the
submersible by the mothership. Submersibles which are
launched from support platforms must be able to be
lowered onto and lifted from the sea surface safely as well
as expeditiously.

For certification classification of a submersible,
its design, fabrication, and testing must be in
compliance with one of the sets of classification
agency rules, such as Lloyd's Register of
Shipping, Det Norske Veritas, or the American
Bureau of Shipping.
In addition, governmental agencies such as the
U.S. Coast Guard have rules which govern the
operation of equipment the requirements for
installed equipment, and the qualifications for
operating personnel. Submersible characteristics
relating to safety imposed by classification
agencies and a detailed discussion of the U.S.
Navy's role in establishing submersible safety
programs.

Safety considerations also apply to the
submerged endurance of the submersible.
The amount of breathable gas on board must
be sufficient for the duration of the designed
mission time, plus an excess for
emergencies. If the submersible is designed
for carrying lock-out divers, safety
considerations for design of hyperbaric
chambers must be considered.
Divers may be operating at ambient pressure,
requiring additional gases which are of the
proper mix for the intended diving depth.
Also, the diver-occupied spaces must have
air purification and heating facilities to
ensure divers' safety and well-being.
The entire design must have a common goal
of safety of personnel and equipment. With
the constraint of size, weight, and costs, the
challenge is great for the designer to create a
submersible meeting the stated mission
requirements and at the same time ensure
that the end product will be a safe,
operational vehicle.

Q&A Session