The subs are built from a variety of materials, but primarily plastics, carbon fiber, and other composites, with a few metal components and some weights to ballast the vessel. "That's really the most valuable part for these young engineers," George says. A complex game, and an example of real-world application, all rolled into one international race. Human-powered subs offer a unique puzzle, and the skills to solve that puzzle are directly applicable to the naval research center where the races occur. "I came here, learned about hydrodynamics, and thought, I could do this," says George of her experience racing at ISR. In fact, Carderock has multiple naval engineers who participated in ISR as college students. The Netherland\’s delft university of technology isr team, with their single-person non-propellor sub, wasub vii. The Navy uses these massive pools to drag warships and warship parts through the water in hydrodynamic tests-and they let college kids race their human-powered subs there, too.
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It's part the David Taylor Model Basin, a large complex that runs more than half a mile through Carderock, housing a shallow-water basin and a high-speed basin in addition to the deep-water basin where the subs race. The deep-water basin at Carderock is one of the longest pools in the world, stretching 1,886 feet long and 22 feet deep. Just crossing the finish line is an achievement-over the course of an entire week of racing, less than half of the runs were successful. That might not sound fast, but considering the top speed Michael Phelps can swim is about 6 mph, or 5.2 knots, these little boats are moving at a pretty good clip. The world speed record for a human-powered submarine is just over 8 knots (9.2 mph), achieved in a two-person sub built by the École de technologie supérieure of Montreal christened Omer 5. If your sub hits the wall of the narrow pool, or the floor, or it breaches the surface, the run is a scratch. The goal is to get the sub lined up and stable in the long pool and gradually build up speed until it passes through the speed trap, where a camera measures velocity in knots. Here's what they have to accomplish: The occupants must take their self-powered subs down the deep-water basin at Carderock. A well-designed sub will take a team much further and faster than an athletic pilot. But the real focus of the race is engineering. Many are cyclists, all are physically fit, and a lot of them are people on the smaller side because these subs are a tight squeeze-especially for teams that opt for a two-person sub.
You want to hit a faster top speed than anyone else, and the job of the sub pilot, pedaling while submerged underwater, is physically demanding. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play It's exactly this impracticality, however, that makes the competition such a magnet for engineers who love a good puzzle.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a vehicle that presents more difficulties. A True Engineering ChallengeĪ human-powered submarine is so ridiculous and impractical that outside of this competition, they are virtually nonexistent. The tool boxes were open, the support divers were in the pool, and the teams from around the world were racing pedal-powered subs, more for the mechanical hell of it than any other reason.
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Every other year, in June, this place transforms from a major testing facility for naval vessels into a tailgate full of college engineers frantically trying to fix the most recent damage to their home-built, human-powered submarines. We're at Carderock Naval Warfare Center, a Navy complex along the Potomac River in Maryland with some of the largest pools in the world. "He's going to go down there and try to hammer the fin straight." So it goes at the 2017 International Submarine Races (ISR), where ridiculous on-the-fly DIY repairs are the name of the game. "I just handed him the biggest hammer we have, and a crowbar," the University of Washington engineering student tells me as he peers down into the dark deep-water basin.
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