how many large engines + large generators for large electric motor

[Quebert]

so im working on this submarine and i have 8 large engines connected to 8 large generators with 2 1-3 gearboxes. is this enough for 1 large electric motor + some other misc stuff? (pumps etc)

also how long would 10 large and 8 medium tanks of air last at full throttle

vehicle link
WIP - engines dont even turn on yet
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133770383

[XLjedi]

I'm working on one that appears to be about twice the size of that and plan to use 2 large generators paired with 54 medium jet turbines in a closed-loop airless system.

The setup is the best approximation I have seen for a nuclear submarine powerplant. I haven't started the generator yet, but will hopefully be testing it tomorrow. Took me awhile to assemble and configure for the powerplant space.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133820866

[maestro]

I been doing some testing on your sub and seems like it's a question of how long you want to be able to cruise around on just battery power.

I tested a medium prop 100% on back and it's draining those batteries very very slow so it's more than enough IMO. In the time I've typed this it's maybe gone down 10% across all batteries.

Running all your engines at 100% used up 2 large tanks full of air in about 18 seconds so you can do the math out from there based on how many more air tanks you have. 8 Large engines is going to devour air very fast naturally.

One last thing. I noticed this T piece seemed rotated wrong. Just wanted to point it out since something like that can be annoying to find.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2134558086

Hope that all helps. I'm still pretty new too.

[Quebert]

thanks

[maestro]

BTW.. I also tested how much the batteries charge back with those 2 large air tanks with the 8 large engines. There's some big numbers involved however it will recharge roughly 1% of your 4 large batteries.

[Quebert]

darn

[GrumpyOldMan]

As for submarines I'd use the classical approach of using electric motors during dive, and diesel direct drive in snorkel depth and to recharge batteries while on the surface.
I've been playtesting a jet turbine driven 58m submarine loosely inspired by the german type-212.

Jet turbine is just comically efficient once you stack turbines and the current way of operating them within enclosed spaces is just asking to be fixed.

8 Large diesel engines should crank out 4k+ generator power on a large generator and 2 gearboxes, should also yield decent speed for direct drive.
They also add a good chunk of mass which every submarine needs.

If you aim for 70kl+ of fuel you'd get an operational time of a few hours, have yet to run the numbers, jet generator with 32 turbines had a range of 3500km at 36km/h, a bit more than 4 days if I recon.

Try to fit as many batteries as possible, to gain more endurance and mass so you don't need to flood half of it just to get somewhat neutral buoyancy.

[XLjedi]

Originally posted by GrumpyOldMan:

Jet turbine is just comically efficient once you stack turbines and the current way of operating them within enclosed spaces is just asking to be fixed.

Comically efficient compared to what? ...a nuclear reactor? I think not.

When the devs add a nuclear core generator, then they can fix the closed-system turbine.

We already have a nice nuclear power facility where we could do missions to retrieve the fuel too. We could have " weight blocks" defined as uranium that need to be placed in the core. So the vehicles would not spawn with fuel, you would be forced to do a mission with other craft to retrieve and transfer the fuel. ...and make sure you had the proper "Radsuit" outfits and so forth. Maybe the door docks would need to be used as fuel ports and uranium bricks have to be transferred in sealed weight block containers else the surrounding area becomes contaminated. That would be pretty cool!

Maybe follow-up missions to somehow cleanup contaminated areas?

[GrumpyOldMan]

Originally posted by XLjedi:

Comically efficient compared to what? ...a nuclear reactor? I think not.

Never wrote a word about nuclear reactors, neither did the thread author, you're the only one bringing them up in this thread, heh.

Since there are no nuclear reactors in game it's speculation at most, how or if the devs will implement them (besides the entire "no nuclear subs in coast guard" argument I'm sure someone will bring up). We already got tsunamis and megalodons, wouldn't be surprised if aliens were next in line.

If you compare it to small, medium and large diesel, it's comically efficient, don't you think?
Depending on amount of turbines the fuel consumption reaches near 0 when staying barely above 0.5 RPS, while being able to put out ~300 generator power at 30turbines+.
At 6-7RPS the same setup would put out somewhere around 5-6k generator power while consuming ~2l/s.

Definitely some balancing needed here, especially taking size into account, since turbines used to power 50m+ ships are a wee bit bigger than the ones currently in game.

[XLjedi]

Originally posted by GrumpyOldMan:

Originally posted by XLjedi:

Comically efficient compared to what? ...a nuclear reactor? I think not.

Never wrote a word about nuclear reactors, neither did the thread author, you're the only one bringing them up in this thread, heh.

All in your frame of reference... I guess nuclear reactor powered submarines are comically efficient compared to non-nuclear surface vessels IRL as well?

The OP is looking for a solution to improve runtime and power while underwater. A closed-loop turbine is the closest approximation we have to a nuclear core. It's worth mentioning anytime someone brings up a large submarine. If someone hadn't mentioned it to me I wouldn't have known about it.

The OP can continue puttering around with limited battery runtime and an air compressor recharge system modeling the output of a party balloon... I'll continue to opt for 20hrs of below surface cruising.

If the devs happen to nerf the closed-loop design... without providing a nuke-core. Then I'll swapout the voodoo engine for a diesel-electric and dial it back to a few hours underwater. The voodoo tech also fits the backstory of my sub wonderfully.