The Futility of the Titan Submersible

For the past few weeks there has been a tragic loss of life in the Atlantic Ocean. For this special Science Saturday our grand geek Charlie Keeble is covering the science of the disaster itself and his own views on the Titan submersible.

The Titanic is the most famous ship in the world and has a legendary status in the history of ocean liners. I have been a big Titanic geek and I have owned models and books about the ship. What I find fascinating about it is the stories of the people who travelled aboard the ship and the engineering marvel that it is. I have admired these with great enthusiasm from watching them on TV and film in the format of dramas and documentaries. It is a hallmark of my passion for adventure and discovery and I even have my own ambitions to visit the wreck of the Titanic some day.

My interest in the Titanic has been revived following the recent disaster of the Titan submersible that imploded as it descended to the wreck with five adventurous sightseers. I was shocked to hear about the demise of the submersible and the death of crew, for which I hold them in my thoughts and I give my condolences to their families. However I do not hold in high regard the company OceanGate for their tourism enterprise to give rich people risky visits to the wreck. Deep sea exploration is not something for the faint hearted and the effectiveness of their experimental Titan submersible proves it.

The first exploration dive to the Titanic was in 1986, a year after it’s discovery. That expedition was led by Doctor Robert Ballard who had also found it on the same expedition. He had discovered it while on a separate exploration of two lost US Navy submarines using sonar equipment that he had developed. Ballard used a submersible to explore the wreck called Alvin, which has been in service since 1964. It’s a 23 feet long, weighs 17 tons and can dive to 14,800 feet, which is more than the depth of the Titanic which is 12,500 feet down.

Now the difference in nautical types here between a submersible and a submarine is in their size and power. Submarines are able to function and carry people at sea completely by themselves working under their own power. They can provide all the necessary protection and supplies for the crew. Submersibles on the other hand are not so independent. They are carried to sea as scout craft aboard a ship where they are prepared for diving by high skilled technicians. When the time comes to explore the depths, the ship uses a crane to put them in the water and the crewdescends to the bottom while relying on it’s mothership to remain in contact.

Alvin’s construction consists of a spherical crew compartment that can carry 3 people that is made of 2 inches of titanium. Just enough to resist the crushing of the sea and in an emergency this sphere can detach from the main body of the sub and ascend to the surface quickly. This gives Alvin a very good margin of safety for it’s crew and it’s a very reliable vessel for oceanographic expeditions. Apart from visiting the Titanic it has also made exciting discoveries in marine biology and geology, such as the discovery of hydrothermal vents inthe Pacific Ocean in 1977.

In contrast the Titan submersible is a primitive construction with limited capabilities. OceanGate built Titan as an experimental submersible cleverly made from a combination of off the shelf components for it’s interior and it is made in two parts. Titan has a sled which transports the crew onboarda detachable pressure vessel. It’s 22 feet long, weighs 21,000 lbs and can dive to a depth of 13,000 feet. The Titan’s crew compartment consists of two titanium hemispheres screwed onto carbon fibre-wound cylindrical hull that can carry 5 people. The titanium end caps are 3.25 inches thick and the carbon fibre hull is 5 inches thick.

However, the major difference here that reveals the weakness in the Titan that makes it inferior to the Alvin is in the materials. Titanium is a tried and tested material that is widely used by submarines and nautical engineers value it for it’s strength and rigidity. It’s got a low density, it’s resistant to corrosion in seawater, and it’s got many applications in design and technology from golf clubs to artificial hip joints. Titanium is also quite an expensive material and it’s hard to extract from iron ore, which is owed to it’s incredible tensile strength resisting the crushing pressure of the sea.

Carbon fibre on the other hand is a composite material made in strands of super strong fibres of carbon processed with resin or epoxy. I have arrows made of carbon fibre shafts and once the material is set it’s very stiff when wound into a shape. Carbon fibre has a lot of advantages over conventional metals like titanium, as it is stronger in tensile strength and has a lower density. It’s highly prized in different engineering sectors like the aerospace, motor racing and sports industry. Some parts of the shipping industry use it for superstructures, but it’s not well made for submarines.

The Titanic lays at a depth of two and a half miles down, where the pressure of the sea is about 40 mega pascals (5800 pounds per square inch). Now titanium works best at this depth because as a metal it doesn’t warp or get twisted by the fluid pressure of the sea. Carbon fibre on the other hand is a composite material and when subjected to large fluid areas of stress it gets brittle unlike titanium. In fact when carbon fibreis subjected to the intense stresses by natural forces like theocean depths it can be twisted or contorted until it breaks apart. This is what is believed to have caused the Titan to implode.

An implosion refers to when a submarine goes past it’s ‘crush depth’ whereby the pressure on the hull exceeds it’s strength and the ocean crushes it. In this situation the submarine loses it’s structural integrity and becomes crushed into a tangled mess, the crew become crushed themselves to a point of incineration due to an extreme temperature rise that candestroy their remains, the air trapped within the vessel escapes and goes to the surface and the wreckage sinks to the ocean floor. All within 2 microseconds!

Despite the loss of the Titan I believe it’s essential that humans continue to explore the oceans as Robert Ballard has learned from his travels underwater there are many things awaiting to be discovered. David Attenborough has even covered these things on his TV shows, and they also include famous ships from explorers who dared to discover this decades ago.

Ocean exploration is a very thrilling adventure for people to undertake and I believe it’s still an important activity that must be undertaken. There are large areas of the ocean that remain unexplored in places that still need to be seen by human eyes and studied for the benefit of discovery and progress. However I don’t see rich tourism exploration to certain places to be worth the risk, unless they finance advances in deep sea exploration for scientific purposes by professional explorers. 

The oceans are areas of great importance that need to be explored in order to satisfy people’s curiosity. There are a lot of potential exciting unknowns that need to be seen and if we stop at the event of a disaster like the Titan submersible then we do a disservice to those who perish. The conquest of the oceans is worth the risk of life and if we go as far as possible we will learn more about our planet Earth than we thought we knew.

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