Working under Water
Complex work is done by teams of highly skilled specialists, who
communicate between themselves and divide tasks during the work. With such work
arrangement, they stay on location and fuel, materials, etc. are delivered to
them. In some cases, they even live on location and fresh water, food, etc. are
delivered to them. Often, this kind of work is well compensated and, more
importantly, it is stimulating and satisfying.
To work underwater with arrangement, special “tools” and methods
of organization are needed.
Each worker needs a
small submarine with internal combustion engine and a few manipulators – a
worker-submarine. Some manipulators are used to immobilize the submarine, other
- to manipulate external environment.
Air and fuel for the worker-submarine
and air, and fresh water for the worker using it, comes from a different, large
submarine – from a supply-submarine, which should be near the work location,
beneath the weather, but close to the surface. A worker-submarine periodically rises
and connects to a supply-submarine to get its supplies.
A supply-submarine periodically gets
compressed air, fresh water and fuel from surface
ships, often even without surfacing.
A delivery-submarine delivers
materials to the work location, which are offloaded with help of
worker-submarines.
Supply submarines also transport
worker-submarines between work locations and facilitate minor repairs of
worker-submarines. They have “portals”, where worker-submarines could attach. A
worker can move through such a portal between a worker-submarine and the
supply-submarine. To save space, the worker sleeps in the worker-submarine even
during transport.
There is a special chamber in a
supply-submarine, where entire worker-submarine could fit and water pumped out.
This chamber is used to provide repairs of worker-submarines.
A worker could spend
many days in his worker-submarine, without living it.
The worker-submarine should support
a range of activities:
·
resting, sleeping, physical exercises, washing, urination
and defecation,
·
eating and drinking,
·
working, including
control of manipulators, control of submarine’s engine, driving the submarine,
etc.
·
control of
supporting structures, as storage tanks storing compressed air, fresh water and
fuel, illuminating devices, communication system to communicate with other
workers in their submarines and supply-submarines.
It needs special systems:
·
a chair-bed, where a worker spends the majority of
his time in the worker-submarine,
·
the system of remote viewing, which is used to
control manipulators and to drive the submarine (see Remote Viewing on this
site),
·
a special
toilet, which is used to collect excrements in a “sewer” tank, which is flushed
using external water.
The chair-bed should be used to:
·
work, drive submarine, communicate,
·
rest and sleep,
·
exercise and wash,
·
eat.
In a submarines of this
type, where pumping liquids and air, is used widely, the engine should be
Pumping Engine (see Pumping Engine on this site), transmission should be Hydraulic
Transmission (see Hydraulic Transmission on this site), and motor, which used
to move the submarine, should be a pump, which takes outboard water in front of
the submarine and expels it at its back, to propel submarine forward, and in a
few other directions, to change direction of its movement.
Electricity should be
produced using reciprocating electric generator using Hydraulic Transmission
and should be stored in a battery.
Manipulators should operate
using hydraulic power via Hydraulic Transmission. Control of manipulators could
be hydraulic or electric.
It is cold under water, hence heating of the cabin is crucial. Some amount of
heat should be extracted from the cooling system of the Engine. Getting
additional heat would require a special “furnace”, where valuable fuel should
be burnt and valuable air should be used. Hence, the system, which cools the
Engine and heats the cabin, should be efficient.
Air in such submarine
is used to control buoyancy, to support burning of fuel in the engine and in a
special “furnace” to produce additional heat.
Most importantly, it is used for
breathing. For breathing, air pressure has to be ratcheted down in discrete
portions. This ratcheted down chills the air in the cabin and additional
heating would be needed to compensate.
Air for breathing should be renewed
and used air should be fed to the engine or the “furnace’. A special air
compressor should perpetually pump air from the cabin for such use or venting.
Reduced air pressure in the cabin should trigger additional input of fresh air.
This way, in the cabin should be a stream of fresh air.
To protect the worker
inside the submarine, the cabin of it should be enclosed in Inner Enclosure
with tight control of all cables and pipes entering it and with means to block
potential entry of external water through these points of entry. This would be
the Inner Enclosure.
All the systems, which
do not need to be inside the cabin, should be outside the Inner Enclosure and
enclosed with Outer Enclosure.
A “cabin access channel” should be made through the space between
the Inner Enclosure and Outer Enclosure. It should provide protection of worker’s
movement between the cabin and place outside the submarine.
The chair-bed allows
efficient utilization of the space of the cabin, hence the cabin could be made
small and this simplifies its protection.
Worker submarine is not
expected to travel far on its own, hence its shape
should be selected to facilitate safety, comfort of the worker, and efficiency
of the use of manipulators.
Following is a partial
list of systems between Enclosures:
·
Buoyancy Control System,
·
Supply Tanks: Compressed Air, Fresh Water, Fuel,
·
Excrements Tank,
·
Engine, “furnace”,
·
Inner Enclosure Heater,
·
Hydraulic Transmission,
·
Electric Generator and Electric Battery,
·
Air Compressor,
·
Propulsion,
Alexander Liss 5/4/2020