Alloys and Underwater Warfare

Alloys and Underwater Warfare

Alloys and Underwater Warfare

The speed of advances in submarine construction and design can probably be attributed to advances in metallurgy and alloy research more than in any other field. Any country surrounded by water maintains a submarine fleet as an integral part of its national defense strategy. As a component of a country's military strategy, a submarine is a force multiplier, capable of performing both defensive and offensive roles.

Early submarine construction was greatly hampered by the metallurgy of the time since an underwater environment presents a number of challenges. For a submarine to work, it must be able to carry a crew and sustain it throughout combat operations. It must be able to work at various depths not only for navigation but also for evasive maneuvers. It must be able to carry its own power supply. And it must be able to carry armaments with which to carry out military operations.

Metallurgy and material science have always provided the key answers in solving the problems associated with the challenges of submarine construction and design. The first real problem solved in submarine construction and design by metallurgy is hull construction. Having to operate at depths and varying intense underwater pressure allowed metallurgists to experiment with a lot of alloys to satisfy weight, buoyancy, flexibility and strength.

The next problems solved by metallurgy are those involving construction and design of the propulsion system as well as the life support system. Advances in metallurgy enabled submarine engineers to integrate propulsion and life support systems via the design of effective power plants.

Metallurgy supported the use of nuclear power in submarines. There are several challenges to the use of nuclear power in subs. Nuclear power means high heat and high pressure, and high heat in an oxygenated environment such as a sub's inner hull meant high corrosion of parts. Copper alloys, the preferred material for steam systems, had to be rejected because of their relative lack of strength.

Nickel alloys are the preferred materials in submarine power systems. Aside from strength and high resistance to corrosion, they are malleable and ductile enough to be worked into the various pressurized piping system required in nuclear powered subs.

While one alloy may be preferred over another in a certain system, Copper alloys as well as nickel alloys will be mainstays of nuclear powered submarines both in the present and in the far future.

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