Sunday, 26 July 2020

pressure - Pool in a submarine


A common theme in aquatic science fiction is the submarine pool/access to the ocean. That terrible TV show Seaquest had it, The Deep & Deep Blue Sea (Samuel L Jackson is standing in front of it when the shark chomps him). My question is how this could possibly work? From what little knowledge I have, I'd say the cabin where the pool resides would have to be pressurized to the water at that depth. The implications are that you'd have to pass through an airlock to get to the room, and that it would only work to a certain depth.


Is this correct, or it too far to the "fiction" side of the science fiction axes?



Answer



Is there a particular way that you think this scheme will fail?


Rather than have an airlock with that particular portion of ship, you can simply pressurize the entire vessel. There are practical reasons why you would not want to do this at great depths (related to how much gas you use and toxicity), but the problems are not related to how the access works.


Given sufficient gas, it will work to any depth. You simply need the air in the vessel to be at the same pressure as the water at the point of access is.


This access is called a moon pool. The wikipedia page has some examples of its use underwater. Moonpool habitat examples



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