Submarines...?

Question

why are they made to be so awkward inside....you have to go through little holes to get to another part ,and there is no room to move...

why couldnt they make them bigger inside, so the holes could be door ways and there is enough room to move about?....I would love to go down in a submarine...but with the spcae inside be so little I wouldnt even dream of it

Answer 1

Good answers above and really it hard to say one answer correct. I will say it more to do with the pressure. It easier to reinforce the outer hull from the inside to prevent the high water pressures from crushing the hull.

The other day I was watching a Discovery Channel about the ship that had sank with lots of gold. They found it deep (I not remember how deep). They discussed the pressure at that depth and how they got there. To give an idea of the pressure they lowered a Styrofoam Cup down, when they brought it back up it was crushed to the size of a thimble.

Answer 2

Bigger submarines need more power to overcome water resistance- they need to be as fast as possible-

Answer 3

You haven't actually been on a modern one have you?

Answer 4

Submarines are designed to work to a standard. For example if you design a sub that can dive to 300 feet the pressure on the hull will be so high that you need to re-enforce all the hulls, doors, windows etc.

If however the sub is going to be used mainly for depths of no more that say 20 feet then you can open up the inside of the sub. You can make it more like a big bus than a U-Boat.

Answer 5

The answers above are mostly correct.

The easiest way to say this, is there are submarines with large hatches and doorways.   The newer classes of military submarines are tremendously easier to get around than older ones.  

Simple physics explains your answer though, and without going into exact numbers, hopefully this will explain it:

Hatches and doorways on submarines are a necessity to allow personnel to enter/exit areas.  Watertight integrity - keep the water out and the living environment inside the submarine, is also required.

Watertight integrity also considers that a portion of the once perfect outer hull may be no longer intact, requiring an inner space to hopefully still support life and as pointed out, supply a bouyant final vessel.  So what starts out as an inner wall and a door (hatch) could very well someday become part of the outer hull of a submarine (This design flaw is what sped the sinking of the Titanic).

Once you understand this, then it is fairly easy to understand that the pressure excerpted upon a door structure goes up as the size of the door goes up.  Hence making large doors can make it harder if not impossible to close a door, when water is trying to open it OR the door would have to be very strong to not fail with water pressure on one side only.

As an example - imagine a tarp in a back yard covering something.  One or two drops of rain would exerpt little to no additional pressure on a tarp, and it would not fail.  Add enough rain, get a little puddle building, and eventually the tarp will truly fail.  This would be due to the pressure (weight) of the water on the area of the tarp.  If the tarp was made of sheet metal, you can see this would still happen, but it would contain more water than a plastic tarp before it failed.  Same thing can eventually happen with steel.

Answer 6

If there is ever a critical problem in a Boat, then the compartment affected must be isolated from the rest of the clean compartments, for instance leak, fire, breach. normally if one compartment is affected there is a good chance the Boat will be able to rise and surface to help fix the problem, if not then the Boat will have to sink until either a rescue ship arrives, the water is low enough to allow a control abandon, or slow death. The Ports are seals between compartments, most are circular and either concave or convex depending on the direction to the Control Room, each compartment would have a doorman who will seal the area during emergency conditions, they are responsible for all the people there and know what would happen if the unlatched and opened the door without ensuring the way was clear.

The Boats these days that are used by the main Navies around the world are massive, they are the size, especially of the 'Boomers' (Missile boats) of our largest Aircraft Carrier a big improvement from the boats of the 1900 -1950's. No more hot bunking, proper food, mainly unlimited time underwater, fast, deep and silent (so silent the newer Royal Navy Boats can sneak right up under most vessels without the detection systems knowing).

Answer 7

bigger than they need to be and they can get detected easier and hit easier when attacked.

Answer 8

Basicaly you have two types of submarine.  Those designed and built for military use and those built for research.  Military submarines are built first and foremost for performance, which means speed in all directions and manouevrability.  Modern navy subs are indeed far larger than those of past but they still have to be functional. They have to be designed to survive as far as possible in case of attack and this leads to many small round doors or bulkhead hatches to secure each compartment in case of damage.  Given that the new navt subs can stay submerged for months and months, the space has to be good enough to keep crew fit an healthy so they are actually quite spacious in this respect given the basic design constraints.  No military vessel is built for luxury either surface or sub.

On the other hand, research subs are not at all designed for months of submersion but for exploring the deep in a relatively short time.  These subs are designed to withstand huge pressures which often makes them spherical or parts of them spherical such as windows.  Basically you are then faced with designing a structure strong enough for the job but large enough for one or more persons to be inside.  Hence they are rather cramped.

Answer 9

If you make them bigger, they become more buoyant - less likely to be able to sink - or harder to submerge.

Answer 10

Do you want a 'Gin Palace'?... Subs are fighting and research machines and the minimum of space suffices. The gangway 'holes' (as you call them) are made to specific diametres. Are you a rather large fellow?