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Submarine ice-cube filled ballast tank

 Displace air with ice cube instead of compressed air
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When sea water is frozen to form hollow ice cube, air is trapped inside. These cubes are thrown down into the ballast tank through one-way mechanism so sea water wont leak into the upper compartment. When ice reaches melting point, air is released to displace water and submarine will float. Impurities such as dead fish, rocks, sand can be introduced into sea water used for making cubes to help them sink. Oxygen producing algea can also be another ingredient in this recipe. A submarine only needs to be equipped with a special hollow ice cube maker. Probably cheaper than piston driven air compression system which might not be within civilian's budget. In fact, this might be more appropriately used in civilian recreational type system since they are not aiming for military type precision and performance.
—cocobk, Apr 11 2004

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       //Impurities such as dead fish, rocks, sand can be introduced into sea water used for making cubes to help them sink//.
I suspect that both this idea and the submarine are soon to be a repository of many undisplaced dead fish.
—gnomethang, Apr 11 2004
   

       I'm losing at my struggle to visualize how one of these is maneuvered.
—dpsyplc, Apr 12 2004
   

       Why would an ice cube with air inside it cause the submarine to sink? Whether the air is inside the ice cube or inside the submarine, it will still give the submarine boyancy.
—GenYus, Apr 12 2004
   

       I'm guessing, of course, but bottom-dwelling creatures at the sea's depths may have evolved along these lines. They'd have organs similar to our kidneys or meninges that are able to filter denser fluid into a specific gravity that could more easily freeze. That would cause them to wiggle, kind of like when you're passing kidney stones. :)
—dpsyplc, Apr 12 2004
   


 

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