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Hi All,
Contacting a concrete pipe manufacturer here in
California,
http://www.hansonpipeandproducts.com/index.html
I've been leaning more and more toward fabricating a sub using this
method. An 8' diameter steel reinforced concrete pipe with a thickness of
9" has a compressive strength of 6000 psi. The company sent me
the specs on the pipe in a pdf that they have. This would be after my
current sub gets finished but no harm in starting to plan for this one!
My thought was to fabricate moulds using wood and pour
sections. The two end pieces would have hemispheres and run somewhere
around 12' long (maybe longer). These two would be bolted together
from the inside where a rib on the inside would allow for the connection.
Subsequent sections would be floated into place and bolted in-between these two
end pieces. There would be large "O" rings between the sections and the
bolts would slowly compress the o rings as they were tightened.
I'm thinking along the lines of a sub in the design like Carsten's,
where everything is inside so the outside is in the shape of a cylinder with
hemisphere ends. A method of closing off the ends for floating together in
the water would be devised, since this would be done on the surface there would
not be very high pressure, and once the connection was made the end seals could
be removed. In this way a very large sub could be constructed in pieces
and then assembled in the water, thereby eliminating the problems of
transporting the massive sub. If anyone in the California area is
interested in helping me peruse this you are more that welcome to join in
! Currently there is only myself and one accomplice on the
project. We have a location to fabricate the moulds and pour the
concrete. The individual sections could be moved to the harbor area one at
a time.
Brian, Ventura CA
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