Reviewed by CAPT Mike Gouge, USNR
This book is a welcome addition to the limited open literature publications on the design of modem (post ALBA-CORE) submarines. As stated in the book, there is very little unclassified information on integrated submarine design since the seminal work by Arentzen and Mandel’ in 1960. This book is well written and organized and can provide someone with a general engineering background a good introduction to the submarine design process including multiple constraints and trade-offs. Chapter 1 discusses the design progression from definition of submarine class mission and overall design requirements to final production drawings. Chapter 2 provides a concise history of submarines with emphasis on design evolution. Next, Chapter 3 provides an overview of submarine hydrostatics including arrangement of external and internal tankage. Chapter 4 covers the important concept of weight/volume constraints in submarine conceptual design including allocation of margin. The next chapter covers submarine structural aspects with emphasis on the pressure hull. Chapter 6 covers submarine powering including resistance coefficients, propulsor design and a brief treatment of available propulsion plant options. Chapter 7 treats the important topic of internal arrangements including space allocation. Chapter 8 deals with submerged dynamics and control and is more analytical than material presented in other chapters. Chapter 9 covers the range of submarine auxiliary systems including electrical, hydraulic, water, high pressure air, escape systems, etc. Production techniques/sequencing and costing are covered in Chapter 10. The final chapter integrates the previous chapters in describing the generation of a concept design. Finally, several technical appendixes cover hydrostatics, trimming, variable ballast calculations, pressure hull strength and resistance/propulsion.
There are some terms that require modest interpretation for readers on the west side of the Atlantic: for example bridge fin (sail), fore end (bow plus forward midships), eletrolyser (oxygen generator), D/Q tanks, etc. but the intent is usually quite transparent in the context of the discussion.
In regard to depth of treatment, this book goes deeper than general semi-technical works2 and approaches the depth of Captain Harry Jackson’s summer short course at MIT3 with somewhat less detail but more basic concepts as is appropriate for a stand-alone technical text. I would highly recommend this book to those in the naval engineering field who want a good introduction to submarine design concepts. I also recommend it to submariners who can benefit from seeing familiar operational concepts presented from a conceptual design perspective. It can certainly serve a part of a technical foundation for more detailed methods which invariably require computer-based analysis which is more powerful but often less intuitive.
