SubMaroon: a student experience in submarine design and racing

SubMaroon is a two person human powered submarine that was designed, constructed, and raced by ocean engineering students at Texas A&M University. This paper describes the design, construction, and performance of SubMaroon. The submarine is an oblong, streamline vessel of circular cross-sections normal to the longitudinal axis with an overall length of 4.0 m (13.1 ft) and a maximum diameter of 0.76 m (2.5 ft). The hull and control surfaces are constructed of fiberglass, and the nose cone made of a poly-carbonate material. SubMaroon is a free-flooded vessel and life support for the divers is provided using standard SCUBA equipment. The propulsion system consists of 12 speed bicycle components and an open bevel gearbox that provides torque to a single shaft connected to a fixed pitch, three bladed propeller. Navigation is obtained with six control surfaces consisting of two forward dive planes, two aft rudders, and two fixed sternplanes. SubMaroon was designed and built to be raced in the 1996 World Submarine Invitational that took place in April of 1996 at which time SubMaroon completed 12 runs with a top speed of 2.30 m/s (4.464 knots). Video tape of the timed runs were used to analyze the performance of the submarine and compare the results to the design expectations. Most repairs and adjustments, such as gear alignment and propeller changes, were designed to be accomplished underwater so removal of the submarine from the race basin for minor changes was minimized. This proved to be very successful and SubMaroon was able to stay in the race queue during repairs which allowed for more runs down the course.