Giant Ships Secrets No One is Talking About

did you know a shift speed isn't based on its size but a fragile balance of propeller design and its bow shape and wait until you see the design Marvel allowing icebreakers to effortlessly shatter giant blocks of ice with their secret bow shape it all started in 1845 when the first screw propeller ship was made and it was pinned against a ship with a paddle propeller who won in the beginning ships had a Paddle Wheel that used Steam for propulsion however the paddle design was grossly inefficient so during a tug of war the screw propeller ship blew the paddle propeller ship out of the water pun intended since then people stopped using the paddle design and opted for the screw propeller you might be wondering why they're called screw propellers when there's nothing related to screws in the ship's propeller it's just a giant fan that pushes water backwards propelling the ship forward directly related to Newton's third law but what if you look at the propeller like it's an Archimedes screw well in that case you realize that the propeller is just a shortened version of this screw hence the name but wait a second shouldn't the propeller be single bladed in that case that's not efficient you see a steeper angle of attack on the propeller blades would theoretically push more water backwards in reality it creates a Vortex inside the water which wastes energy so this is the first challenge when designing a propeller the angle of attack needs to be steep but not so steep to waste energy the Second Challenge has to do with the speed of rotation of the propeller the faster the blade spins the faster it pushes water backwards which propels the ship faster again this is in theory if the propeller spun at maximum speed the engine and bearings would be overloaded and the engine would cease working also a fast spinning blade would create wild cavitations at the tips of the blade which would damage the propeller over time so while a propeller might seem simple enough Engineers need to balance several things at once the number of blades the angle of attack on each of the blades the optimal speed to spin the vibrations of propeller will create based on the number of blades and generating enough power to propel the ship forward for example a five bladed propeller can rotate slower and generate the same thrust as a propeller with just three blades there would be fewer vibrations because the power is spread over five blades instead of just two or three so why don't we make 16 bladed propellers and have grossly efficient chips because if we did the 16 blades would disturb the water at 16 intervals inside the propeller Circle lowering the total efficiency also the maximum speed would be much slower on the ship so what is the optimal number of blades a propeller should have the answer is drum roll please it depends based on the performance needs of the ship Engineers will equip it with adequately plated propellers for example a 21 pitch prop is ideal for a speedboat but the pitch will need to be much less steep for a cargo ship when considering a shift stability we must remember that a narrow Hull decreases stability to increase speed for example a speedboat has a very narrow hole below water to increase speed which is why most need weights at the bottom to retain stability old pirate ships on the other hand had a tumble home bow basically a ship with the tumble home bow has sides that taper inward the higher it goes up this offers greater stability in the vessel because the base is much wider than the deck this was a crucial factor for Designing Wooden Boats while they were rarely used for some time they're now making a comeback you see a tumble home bow is great for stealth ships because they have a narrow top their radar reflection is decreased if you pair that with a silent ship that doesn't produce a lot of heat then you have an eye deal stealth ship a famous example is the zoom wall class destroyers operated by the U.S Navy some ships like the 50 million dollar type 22 missile boat operated by the Chinese people's Liberation Army Navy combine a narrow wave piercing Hull but offers increased stability thanks to the catamaran's tumble home hall for a multi-hull design looking at the ship you might not think about all the map that goes into building the ideal bow logically you'd want to bow that shark to cut through the water but not all ships have a sharp bow some look very dull when observed from above the design of the bow needs to take into account three parameters the speed of the boat the function of the boat and the seasoned waterways that will be navigated by the boat there are different types of bowels most common of which are the straight stem bow a side profile shows that the base of the ship's bow goes straight up at a 90 degree angle but there are also inverted bows while bows might maximize the boat's speed by maximizing its water line length they can be very dangerous when operated near other ships because the bottom of the ship is protruding the farthest in a head-on collision these bows would pierce the bottom of another ship it could stop the ship would then likely take on a lot of water and sink to combat this many ships employed the flared bow or the Aberdeen bow here again looking at a side profile you'll see that the top of the bow is the farthest point of the ship the angle is not straight but larger than 90 degrees this way in a head-on collision the ship's bow would do a lot more damage above water stopping the ship before it could damage the hull also these ships are well equipped for riding the waves why do some ships have a giant red protruding bulb at the base wouldn't that make the ship slower it does the exact opposite the bulbous bow as it's called changes the way water flows around the ship's Hull the bulbous bow creates a wave that cancels the wave created by a conventional bow when traveling through the water this way the ship is faster because it has less drag its range is increased and the ship is more stable on top of that there is a 15 savings on fuel by having a bulbous bow ice breakers are very important we're not talking about conversation starters we're talking about ships to navigate through the icy frozen Waters of the Arctic and the Antarctic oceans giant ships with extremely durable bowels are employed to break through the ice the design is straightforward they have a sloping bow this design helps the ship push the ice downward and break it using nothing but the ship's weight to maximize the ice-breaking forces engineers make sure the flare of the ship at the water line is very small this is why you see most ice-breaking ships with rounded stems and sloping sides to improve maneuverability they have a short parallel midship but this is only in extreme situations where the ice is very thick in regular conditions the ice breaking capability is determined by something called the HV curve in this curve H stands for the thickness of ice and v stands for Speed in other words what would be the fastest speed a ship would be able to travel to break X millimeters of ice once that's figured out the process is pretty straightforward this is what it looks like inside a modern day Lifeboat these boats are nothing like the ones used on the Titanic they have specialized belts for each passenger inside and they can carry up to 150 people depending on the type of Lifeboat immediately after entering people must open all the butterfly valves to use the Air Supply the Lifeboat is equipped with a 10 minute Air Supply in case of emergencies there's a bucket of pyrotechnics in the Lifeboat under the seats there are rations of food each person is entitled to one of these one pound rations and three liters of drinking water above the sitting area there's a cockpit where the captain will navigate the Lifeboat but before they can do so the lifeboats need to be deployed this is done by pulling the release gear lever which releases the brakes and allows the Lifeboat to free fall into the ocean did you know that an aircraft carrier has a system for deploying anchors that span across multiple rooms of the ship nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that create their own electricity and can run practically forever cannot throw the anchors overboard they store them inside the chain Locker which is the bottom most room of the aircraft carrier thousands of feet of heavy duty chains are stored in there along with a thirty thousand pound anchor designed to stop a 99 000 ton nimitz-class carrier dead in its tracks most aircraft carriers have two anchors one at the bow and one at the stern the chain cannot be freely released into the water as the results could be catastrophic that's why they use a windlass a large winch that controls the anchors lowering and hoisting to help the winch grip the anchor it has Wildcats a special set of drums that are also a crucial part of the braking system that helps with the dropping of the anchor bye for now foreign

Channel: Beyond Facts

Views: 4,989

Keywords: beyond facts, cruise ship secrets, ship industry, engineering, top 10, you didn't know that, ship, cruise ship, cargo ship

Id: BMNZYSVLcdA

Length: 9min 23sec (563 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2023