In April 2006 a German Navy Type 212 submarine (U-32 pictured) sailed from the Baltic Sea to Rota, Spain in a journey lasting two weeks, covering 1,500nm without surfacing or snorkelling. Seven years later, while on the way to participate in naval exercises in the USA, U-32 established a new record for non-nuclear submarines with 18 days in submerged transit without snorkelling.
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Regular commenter, the illustrious MHalblaub, has written some
excellents comments of November 12, 2014, that:
- - Successfully refute some of my statements at http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/submarine-institute-of-australias.html,
and
- - On many aspects of submarine diesel-electric propulsion
systems are beyond my level of knowledge.
So I have posted MHalblaub’s comments below so they can be
read more easily on this blog and commented on at length. MHalblaub commented November 12, 2014:
“you write: "Repair facilities in Japan relatively
close compared to Germany or France."
On the other [hand you earlier mentioned] that South Korea already does
build Type 214 submarines. Therefore Australia has repair facilities [near] Japan for submarines designed by TKMS.
The engines are likely to be [German developed] MTU 4000 based generators no
matter which submarine [is chosen - HDW 216 or Soryu] . In case of rechargeable lithium batteries the MTU 396 offers
not enough power to provide maximum current to charge the new type of
batteries. The 28 MTU 4000 are already in RAN use on 14 Armidale-class patrol
boats. [see righthand sidebar of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armidale-class_patrol_boat "Propulsion: 2 × MTU 4000 16V 6,225 horsepower (4,642 kW)
diesels driving twin propellers"]
So Australia should know how reliable these engines are. The French SMX
Ocean solution with six engines seems to be an ad hoc solution to provide
enough power to charge the lithium batteries.
Btw. Dolphin 2 class might already have lithium batteries
and the MTU 4000. Only for Dolphin 1 class reliable information is available.
Dolphin 2 class is a black box just like Type 218. I still believe these
submarines are just relabeled Type 214 with enhanced propulsion MTU 4000 +
lithium batteries. The price of 1 billion Euro for two [HDW 218SG] submarines is just too
low for more displacement.
According to the SMX Ocean there is a big question mark
about the second AIP technique proposed by DCNS. It is not so easy to reform a
high quality fuel (hydrogen) for a fuel cell out of standard diesel oil. It
might work with very clean bio diesel but “dirty” standard diesel could ruin
the fuel cells or the filters very fast. DCNS will for sure offer replacements
… Standard fuel cells work with pure hydrogen and oxygen. Methanol or ethanol
reformer work rather well with clean fuel. Direct methanol fuel cells are best
feed with bio ethanol with even less contamination than standard ethanol.
According to DCNS’ video clip MESMA is the worst AIP system
available for long endurance missions – 14 days at 4 kn are just 1344 nm. The
2nd generation AIP by DCNS with an expected endurance of 21 is not much better
than the 1st generation AIP on first batch of small German Type 212: proven [submerged] endurance of 18 days.
http://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article114619845/Deutschem-U-Boot-gelingt-Rekordfahrt-ueber-Atlantik.html SMX Ocean was a nice eye catcher for EURONAVAL 2014.”
COMMENTS
Australia by the Indian Ocean sorely needs Japanese and French advocates to support any case for buying Soryus or DCNS submarines :)
Pete
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