University of Houston researchers have speculated new theory for why submersible imploded in the oceanA team at the University of Houston claims to have uncovered the cause of the tragic Titan submersible implosion that occurred in June 2023 during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic.The submersible, owned by OceanGate Expeditions, vanished while en route to the doomed ocean liner, sparking a desperate search for the five people on board. The U.S. Coast Guard ultimately determined the ves
CF just seems like a bad material to use for this purpose at all
CF is extremely light, so when you want to build something that sink it make sense to build it out of extremely expensive CF rather than cheap steel like every other submarine.
It’s also not great when the pressure is on the outside of the vessel. It’s good at containing pressure because that leads to tension on the carbon fibers which is when they’re their strongest. But when the pressure’s on the outside of the vessel they’re more or less useless.
Yeah, at the point where you’re resisting outside pressure your hull is basically just the plastic resin that the fibres are sealed in. Without that, the fibres are just a fabric bag.
Imagine if they’d said “We’re diving down to the Titanic in a submersible with a plastic resin hull.” Doesn’t sound so great.
But it sounds cool