Submarine survival technique

A technology that removes carbon dioxide from air in submarines without the use of power could help save lives in an emergency.

Reactive polymer curtains (RPCs), thin polymer sheets that use a chemical reaction with lithium hydroxide to remove CO

, would be hung around the submarine when the power had been shut down. Usually mechanical extraction units would be used for the job.

Fluid mechanics specialists at

recently evaluated the technology for the MoD. George Tebbutt, project leader, said the chemical used in the RPCs has worked in numerous other applications before submarines.

'It's an existing technology that is used for diving applications and mining,' he said. 'It's what NASA uses to control CO

on space ships.'

Tebbutt said the company was asked to use its expertise in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to map patterns of airflow throughout compartments of the submarine and predict whether RPCs would effectively remove CO

.

The RPCs were first tested by the MoD in a dive chamber and specialists at Frazer Nash took those tests results and verified them with CFD. 'In a subsequent project we created a CFD model, which placed the RPCs into a submarine compartment,' he said. 'The model included the crew, so their respiration and the energy they produced were taken into account.'