Submerging quietly
Submerging quietly
Submarines are, as any other ship, equipped with generators for the generation of electricity. For these generators applies the same as for almost everything on board a submarine, they have to be as small as possible, they have to be fully dismountable and they should of course produce as less vibration as possible.
Separate parts, assembly, balancing
One of the many problems with the generator is the fact that it has to be cooled with large quantities of air. This means that the generator has to be equipped with a large fan, even larger then the largest entrance in the submarine. This is why the generators on board are equipped with separable cooling fans which can only assembled once on board.
Despite the use of accurate fittings and dowel pins it is not possible to prevent any residual imbalance after the assembly of the fans. In order to prevent large vibrations, noise and increased wear, the only solution is to rebalance the cooling fans on board.
Van Geffen VMS has balanced multiple generator fans on various submarines of the Royal Dutch Navy, resulting in quietly running generators with a minimized vibration level.