Technology and Operations  
This forum is for discussing technological & operational matters pertaining to U-boats. 
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull?
Posted by: J.T. McDaniel ()
Date: April 18, 2001 03:35PM

The problem for the crew wouldn\'t be working in a pressurized environment so much as it would be that they couldn\'t rapidly shift from a pressurized to a normal environment, which would obviously be necessary for fighting -- or even just operating -- the boat.

For instance, if the hull was pressurized to 50 psi, and remained submerged and at that pressure for six hours, it would require a total of 329 minutes (5 hours, 29 minutes) to decompress. This is from US Government OSHA (Occupational Health & Safety Administration) tables for workers in pressurized environments.

While it\'s possible to work at higher pressures, and for longer periods, decompression times can then run into several days, which isn\'t of much use for the purposes of this discussion. All in all, pressurizing the hull simply wouldn\'t be worth the trouble and risk for the slight gain in depth potential. And, in a WWII-era
boat, it would probably be more dangerous than the risk of depth charging. And you\'d probably gain more pressure resistance from a 5mm increase in hull thickness than from 100 psi inside the hull.

J.T. McDaniel

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Subject Written By Posted
Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Tom Iwanski 04/13/2001 02:03AM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Ger Wallace 04/13/2001 01:39PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Ken Dunn 04/13/2001 09:57PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Tom Iwanski 04/16/2001 03:53PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Rainer Bruns 04/16/2001 08:42PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Ken Dunn 04/16/2001 10:51PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Tom Iwanski 04/17/2001 02:52PM
Pressure SuperKraut 04/18/2001 06:39PM
RE: Pressure Rainer Bruns 04/18/2001 08:12PM
More questions Tom Iwanski 04/19/2001 11:54AM
RE: More questions J.T. McDaniel 04/19/2001 12:18PM
More pressure SuperKraut 04/19/2001 03:13PM
air tanks and depth charges kurt 04/19/2001 03:43PM
Second skin SuperKraut 04/19/2001 06:58PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? bernard zimmermann 04/18/2001 03:18AM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? J.T. McDaniel 04/18/2001 12:26PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Rainer Bruns 04/18/2001 01:43PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? J.T. McDaniel 04/18/2001 03:35PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Rainer Bruns 04/18/2001 08:10PM
RE: Achilles heel outside of pressure hull? Ken Dunn 04/18/2001 09:32PM
RE: Second skin bernard zimmermann 04/22/2001 06:16AM
Higher internal pressure SuperKraut 04/22/2001 07:05AM
RE: Second skin Ken Dunn 04/22/2001 01:53PM
RE: Second skin Ken Dunn 04/22/2001 02:10PM
RE: Second skin bernard zimmermann 04/27/2001 04:06AM


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