Whats your opinion on hybrid nuclear submarines? I mean those that are electric driven submarines, but instead of using diesel, they use a low power nuclear power plant.USA and UK and France dont do SSKs because the fuckers dont have the manpower to crew the bloody things. SSNs are absolutely disgusting waste of money for standard duty operations.
France and RN are INCAPABLE of doing your normal submarine mission profile of say, attacking the enemy's merchant shipping, They're dedicated SSBN escorts.
For everything else, be it interdiction of enemy merchantmen, for sulking around and gathering SIGINT and laying mines, and inserting SF - SSKs are the best thing.
SSNs are noisier, more expensive to build and operate and the crew qualification requirements are off the charts. Its a stupid bet for non escort SSBN missions.
Current nuke subs convert steam pressure to electric right ? Or directly drive the prop using steam pressure ? Pardon the noob QuestionWhats your opinion on hybrid nuclear submarines? I mean those that are electric driven submarines, but instead of using diesel, they use a low power nuclear power plant.
You get equivalent performance to SSKs but with the endurance of SSNs. Speculated that the chinese are using this in one of their newer class SSNs.
Current subs drive the shaft directly with turbines (the electric generation is done for the onboard systems only)Current nuke subs convert steam pressure to electric right ? Or directly drive the prop using steam pressure ? Pardon the noob Question
All the steam goes to turbines who's primary job is propulsion. Added to these turbines are generator that provide power to all the systems. Generally you also have small diesel engine and batteries for back-up and emergency operations.Current nuke subs convert steam pressure to electric right ? Or directly drive the prop using steam pressure ? Pardon the noob Question
NEP is different from a Nuclear Heat Source. The setup described above is a regular nuclear-powered SSN, but with advanced features—not related to the rumored Nuclear Hybrid SSK.All the steam goes to turbines who's primary job is propulsion. Added to these turbines are generator that provide power to all the systems. Generally you also have small diesel engine and batteries for back-up and emergency operations.
A typical, more complicated arrangment is something like this
View attachment 13378
In case of a hybrid-drive the basic idea (I'm simplifying is so much that it's somewhat wrong) is to primarily generate electricity and then use it to drive a motor. The typical arrangement would be a nuclear reactor and a diesel engine attached in "parallel" to a generator, which then goes to a rather large AIP type battery section and then finally to the motor. There are few theoretical advantages to it
> With advancement in motors and emergence of high power density motor like axial-flux you can directly run a propeller to it instead of requiring a complex gear system. This both make things simpler and also reduced vibration.
> You don't need a mechanical linkage between steam generator and the propeller as now everything is reduced to just a single wire (obviously more than that, but you get it) so now you can completely seal the nuclear-generator section in a sound-vibration proof enclosure.
> The overall arrangment become bit simpler.
Good luck generating electricity for a 3,000 ton submarine, let alone propelling it with extremely power inefficient nuclear batteries.Nuclear Battery is akin to RTGs
Thanks, using nuclear energy to charge the batteries, generate electricity and use that to drive an electric motor for propulsion seems to be a more quieter approach and obvious, so why is this not the primary approach? There must be some drawback, probably power wastageAll the steam goes to turbines who's primary job is propulsion. Added to these turbines are generator that provide power to all the systems. Generally you also have small diesel engine and batteries for back-up and emergency operations.
A typical, more complicated arrangment is something like this
View attachment 13378
In case of a hybrid-drive the basic idea (I'm simplifying is so much that it's somewhat wrong) is to primarily generate electricity and then use it to drive a motor. The typical arrangement would be a nuclear reactor and a diesel engine attached in "parallel" to a generator, which then goes to a rather large AIP type battery section and then finally to the motor. There are few theoretical advantages to it
> With advancement in motors and emergence of high power density motor like axial-flux you can directly run a propeller to it instead of requiring a complex gear system. This both make things simpler and also reduced vibration.
> You don't need a mechanical linkage between steam generator and the propeller as now everything is reduced to just a single wire (obviously more than that, but you get it) so now you can completely seal the nuclear-generator section in a sound-vibration proof enclosure.
> The overall arrangment become bit simpler.
Exactly; even if you change let's say the angle of rotation by adding two gears and a shaft you loose some energy. And here we're talking about converting on form of the energy to another so both the generator and the motor would waste some energy in the form heat compared to a simpler arrangement of steam directly turning the propeller.Thanks, using nuclear energy to charge the batteries, generate electricity and use that to drive an electric motor for propulsion seems to be a more quieter approach and obvious, so why is this not the primary approach? There must be some drawback, probably power wastage
Why don't you research before posting?Good luck generating electricity for a 3,000 ton submarine, let alone propelling it with extremely power inefficient nuclear batteries.
Everything is economies of scale problem. Plutonium 238 is a pain in ass to extract and costly- volume of scale problem. But is less radioactive and requires minimal shielding as it only emits primarily alpha particles making Radioactive hysteria less of a problem. It primarily made sense when Nuke Reactors Noise was so loud and the Chinese were having trouble to achieve stealth levels of Virginia and Seawolf and hence experimenting with that. But for established players like USA, France, UK its doesn't make sense.Why don't you research before posting?
A Soryu class submarine Hotel Load is 200kW and its silent transit speed requiress 50kW.
A NASA Cassini RTG generates 250-300W and its entire weight is around 50Kg. So to fulfill Hotel Load plus Silent Transit Speed they need around 1000 Batteries which means 500 Tons which is manageable on some 4000-Ton submarine.
Even if you don't want to fulfill hotel load and only powering silent drive is enough whwich is 50kW then 200 Batteries which is around 100-Tons is more than manageable.
Number of Batteries in Japan's new Taigei submarine.
A professional level blog on strategic matters, especially submarines (nuclear and conventional) in English, Hindi & most other major languages.gentleseas.blogspot.com
Comparison of Soryu Modes of Electrical Propulsion Table
A professional level blog on strategic matters, especially submarines (nuclear and conventional) in English, Hindi & most other major languages.gentleseas.blogspot.com
This blog is a goldmine and @Gessler is contributor there.
You mean a LWPR like the French use.Whats your opinion on hybrid nuclear submarines? I mean those that are electric driven submarines, but instead of using diesel, they use a low power nuclear power plant.
You get equivalent performance to SSKs but with the endurance of SSNs. Speculated that the chinese are using this in one of their newer class SSNs.
I think as long as the batteries are big enough, it shouldnt really matter..... right? The batteries can supply excess power to the engine, and the reactor can power up to desired level in the meantime.You mean a LWPR like the French use.
Its a good idea in principle, but i dont know what the spool rate is, i.e how quickly it can ramp up power to enable rapid accln
What's your stand in kalvari class data leak? Hell no way one can fill over 22000 pages with useless nonsense, personally in my opinion not going for 3 more subs immediately was an obvious decision, and going for them even now makes no sense.the Type 209s and the last trench of Kilos have already been given life extension programs, and mid life upgrades, and everything else.
They are due for scrapping. The GoI should have really taken the additional 3 scorpene option 3 years ago.
Its not useless nonsense for sure. the leak was effectively done by people who wanted to scrap the Aussie deal.What's your stand in kalvari class data leak? Hell no way one can fill over 22000 pages with useless nonsense, personally in my opinion not going for 3 more subs immediately was an obvious decision, and going for them even now makes no sense.