Analysis on what happens when a submarine implodes | Hacker News Reader

Analysis on what happens when a submarine implodes

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27 pointsak_1119 comments

Here is a steel pressure tank imploding. It was under only 14.5ish psi. The Titan would have experienced HUNDREDS of psi. Also, it's pressure hull was made of Carbon Fiber, which is notorious for failing catastrophically with zero warning, whether due to a manufacturing defect like a simple nick, or just going beyond what it could physically withstand.

The vessel was NEVER tested to 4000 m. It was probable that it was always going to fail at the depth needed for the titanic. There was no warning for the crew and passengers. One instant they were descending just fine, the next they are human bisque.

>HUNDREDS

Around 6,000 actually, according to Google.

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=12000+ft+water+column+p...

Just to clarify – this wasn't the Titan's first time to the Titanic right? Looking back, it seems like they'd been down there with it before: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/titanic...

(Not to diminish from the point that from everything we've heard from people like James Cameron, etc, this thing was nowhere near adequately tested.)

>> The vessel was NEVER tested to 4000 m

Not sure where you found that, according to this article it was on it's 3 trip, although both the previous ones were near-misses:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/titan-passengers-share-...

The key quote "entire hull was completely destroyed in 40 milliseconds...half the minimum required for the cognitive recognition of an event." Nature is amazing.

Also, about 3 tons of TNT equivalent energy was released (for that Argentinian submarine collapse), so there's nothing left to search for except shards and debris. No evidence of what specifically and how has failed, no bodies, likely no "black box".

Yes, it's 3 tons of TNT equivalent, but it's still an IMplosion rather than an EXplosion. From my understanding, things get pushed together rather than torn apart and disintegrated.

I'd assume the submarine is basically a crashed can now lying somewhere in the seabed, with all its contents still inside, equally compressed.

Things still get superheated and torn apart in an implosion. Yes, the pressure hull (or its pieces) will be crushed, but the contents won't be inside (and will, in the case of less sturdy contents, likely not be intact in any recognizable form.)

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