…or diein tryin
Tomorrow I am going on a tour of a SSGN (Guided-missile Nuclear Submarine). I can’t wait, it’s going to be amazing! Hopefully I’ll get some good info for the Sub we’re designing for senior design.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The SSGN tour actually happened 2 days ago.  After a brief stint of the 24 hour flu, I’m back to finish this blog post.  The SSGN was sweet.  It’s 540 long, has 4 decks and I went through every compartment that wasn’t sealed off (and they were only sealed off cause of the radiation hazard).  Talk about information overload.  The LT that showed me around told me about nearly every piece of equipment on board.  One thing about submarines that I had forgotten about has to do with the initial arrangement.  A sub in drydock, or on the surface has a different shape then a sub at a greater depth.  At greater depths, the outer radius of a sub can change by several inches.  While you wouldn’t think that a few inches would be that much… on a sub it’s everything.  If the radius changes by 6 inches (quite possible), then the overall change is about half a foot… and on a submarine that is a lot of missing space.

Walkways were about 2-2.5 feet wide.  The deck height was probably about 7 feet tall, including cabling and pipes above which took at least a foot of that.  The Georgia’s bridge was smaller than a Virginia class, but that’s because it is located right below the sail, and they don’t use photonics masts (so it’s a restriction based on the periscope, and we won’t have that problem).

Hydraulics are a big issue on board.  The Control surfaces have their own hydraulics, but are also tied into the boats other hydraulic systems for backups.

Cooling was another heavily stressed item.  Refrigeration needs it and computers definately need it.  Really everything needs it.

All in all, it was quite an amazing tour.  I was very impressed and overwhelmed at the shear complexity of submarine arrangement.

Goin Big…