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Originally Posted by Bellman
OT - Bilge.
A non-too serious question:-
Considering that the space and possibly the weight of foodstuffs and drink on a nuke equates to the
same of the reactor etc. Presumably the waste material (ie soil) is discharged during the voyage or is it
chemicaly processed and stored until return to port ? If the former then one assumes that as the voyage
proceeds the sub becomes lighter providing more options for manouverability.So a high fibre intake processed
by a battery of animal tracts enhances the performance of 21st century 'hangs and dives' ?
I suspect that this ' discharge' concept, might have applied in WW2, but today special chemical or
biological bouy sensors could make this a dangerous technique.
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Sorry, but your logic is flawed.
As food is eaten, digested and excreted onboard a sub, it eventually makes its way to special 'sanitary tanks'. The sanitary tanks are periodically emptied by pumping the waste to sea (the sanitary pump is a bitch to clean if it becomes clogged!). Whenever the sanitary tanks are emptied, the sub does indeed become lighter. However, this means the sub will become more buoyant, which is a no-no.
One of the Diving Officer's most important jobs is to keep the sub in 'neutral trim'. Thus, whenever a sanitary tank is emptied, the Diving Officer compensates by adding an equivalant amount of seawater into the boat's trim tanks. Thus, the sub's total weight remains the same -- there are no 'performance benefits' from a high-fiber diet! :|\