We run the boat on the diesel and on the river for about 15 hours, using three sluis without to damage even one, and now it is in sheltered water of a close harbour.
I run the boat from the sail with direct switch command for side rudder and both thrusters. And a mate in the OPZ (operational room - centrale) control mostly echosounder, seamap and side scan. An other mate in the engine room controlling Engine throttle and gear. All in conection via the intercom with a clear signal speak.
"Centrale from Sail : Question echosounder?" "Sail from Centrale : 30 feet" "Engine Room from Sail: Forward gear - 800 rpm" "Sail from Engine Room : Forward 800" "Engine Room from Sail: Forward - 1200 rpm" "Sail from Engine Room : 1200" "Sail from Engine Room: I need drinking water.." "Centrale from Sail: Please bring water to Engineer.." "Centrale from Sail: Estimate arrival time for sluis?" "Sail from Centrale: 17.50 pm" To be continue..
No bigger problems, but the worklist jump from 30 hours to do back to 100.. Lot of small items to fix before the boat status change from "Operational" to "Expedition ready"
At zero speed in a harbour we can turn the boat with the forward and aft 9 Kw thruster on it own axis.
For this year we plan one bigger voyage from the river to the North Sea, than the Baltic Channel to he Baltic. After this some test trials and dives in the Baltic. I think it will be "Expedition ready " early next year.
Hi Gentlemens.. Technical short description of the Euronaut chamber: Euronaut Lock out chamber has a bottom exit. The bottom exit hatch open to the inside and is pressure tight in both dire ctions. Under the hatch is a vertical cylinder with a volume of about 240 Liters. Means equal to the volume of three divers. There is another hatch going to the inside of the submarine. This hatch sea led the chamber to the boat with the chamber under overpressure. This hatch is only sealed with the chamber under overpressure. There is a third hatch on the same transfer hole working only with overpressure in the submarine. We call it the rescue hatch. Its only used if we have a fire/overpressure/ floodig or other accident in the sub and use the diver chamber a rescue cha mber. There are two more hatches on a smaller horizontal cylinder - we call ed that the medicie sluis. Here you can transfer medicine, food or alcohol to the diver with the chamber under pressure. Operating the divers chamber. The boat dive to the bottom. And release his anchor about 1,2 meters (3-4 feet)down. And make the hard regulator tank installed over the anchor system heavy so that the boat rest on a heavy anchor. Now the boat is fix to the bottom like an airship to his anchor mast. The pressure in the chamber will increase until ambient. There are gauges t o control so. But also a check valve on he exist hatch to see physical that you reach amb ient pressure. Now that hatch can be open and the diver can jump out. If the diver jump ou t - the chamber volume gets exact about the divers volume greater, means th e pressure in the chamber gets a little lower. As result the moonpool water line will climp up in the vertical cylinder below the hatch until the pres sure is anbient again. Remember this exit cylinder has 240 Liters and a div er has 80-90 liters. So two divers can jump out and the waterline will stil l not reach the exit hatch. And the sub still stay at the same bouancy over the ground at anchor. With other words the missing divers weight will repl ace by water in the entrance cylinder without the need of any man controll. Its pure good old archimedes. If the diver is back he close the hatch and the decompresion procedure will start. There are two ways to do so. The normal way is that the boat surface and th e chamber is still under pressure. Remember that the outside hatch work aga inst pressure in both directions. At the surface or in any depth lower than the bottom pressure you can lower the divers chmabers pressure according to the decompressions tables/comput ers by open again the check valve on the exit valve. This can be done by th e divers themself. Or the chamber operator on the other side inside the sub can release the pressure to the inside of the sub. With the sub on the sur face and the sail hatch open this will not increase the boats internal pres sure. With the boat still underwater this will increase the boats internal pressure, but the boat has two compressors and a huge battery to press the gas to the bottles. Also the volume of the boats inside is 6 times greater than the chamber volume. In case we use later helium/oxygen mixtures at greater depth we will use th e second way with the compressors to get the helium back to the bottles. Our chamber has controls outside and inside. And can be operate from both s ide. Mostly because she is also our rescue chamber. There are some more to explain but in general thats it is. We will only ope n the diver hatchs under two circumstands: With the boat resting at anchor and bow heavy over the ground or with the boat on the surface both dive tan ks blown empty. Both situation are "stable" and prevent that water can ente r the chamber and the boat lost his bouancy control. The biggest issue on the chamber is the huge amount on compressed air bottl es it needs to get the chamber ambient at greater depths. The other issue i s the fire risk at greater depths with air in the chamber. If you make the chamber ambient at 40 meters(130feet) you have 4 oxygen atoms per volume in sted of one.. A drawing with the chamber and the boat at anchor and diver on theexit is here: http://www.euronaut.org/content/gfx/technic/0.jpg Here you can see the transfer hatch from the boat into the chamber. The res cue hatch is just vissible partly on the right. The medicine sluis above th e transfer openiong is vissible and a little above and left and right the t wo windows to have cvisual contact with the divers. http://www.euronaut.org/content/upload/notes/222477_3601536086689_1424932934_n.jpg On this picture some of the controls inside the chamber are vissible. Gas control, oxgend flow, windows, intercom and the scrubber filters. http://www.euronaut.org/content/upload/notes/IMG_5000.jpg Here a diver simulate/test exit with the boat still onshore but in the righ t high over the bottom: http://www.euronaut.org/content/upload/notes/P7050190.JPGhttp://www.euronaut.org/content/upload/notes/P7050193.JPG And here the chamber is ambient to the outside water and the hatch open. The water level is to an line which indicate that both divers are still in. With one or two divers out the waterline will be higher. One of the two sleeping places are also vissible. http://www.euronaut.org/content/upload/notes/IMG_7071.jpg WARNING: - Submarines are toys, keep them always away from adults - all the best Carsten