Late in 1956 Western naval observers sighted a new Soviet submarine operating in the Gulf of Finland. She had a streamlined hull shape, a small sail structure, and a vertical rudder; her length appeared to be just more than 200 feet. She had no snorkel, which contributed to speculation in the West that the Soviets had developed a nuclear-powered submarine—less than two years after the launch of the revolutionary USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the U.S. Navy’s first such submarine. The Soviet design—given the U.S. code- name “Whale”—although not nuclear-powered, was still an important milestone in submarine development.
Russia and the Soviet Union had long been interested in power plants capable of providing high underwater speeds. The work intensified in the 1930s as investigations focused on the use of liquid oxygen to permit diesel engine operations while submerged.
S. A. Bazilevsky, a talented engineer, was the first to pursue this approach. Following his 1936 research, several other alternatives for the use of liquid oxygen were suggested and implemented, and some later realized widespread application in submarine construction.
At the end of 1944, hydrogen peroxide, among other oxygen-carrying compositions, was used experimentally to oxidize fuel in the fuel chamber of a steam generator. The results were not too promising because of low hydrogen peroxide concentration.
In 1945, immediately after World War II, Soviet engineers went to Germany to evaluate the German experience in many branches of industry. Engineers V. K. Stankevich and I. S. Goltraf, who visited the Dresden firm Bruener-Kanis-Reder, saw an original turbine design for submarine use. The firm’s owner, Mr. Kanis, explained that the turbine had been ordered by the German Navy. Its power rating was 7,500 horsepower at 10,000 revolutions per minute with steam-gas (carbon-dioxide) as the working medium; time to reach full revolutions from a cold state was five minutes. It represented an evolutionary design based on earlier lower-power turbines. Kanis suggested that the engineers visit the design bureau in the town of Blankenburg to obtain more detailed information.
Three towns in Germany were named Blankenburg, and Kanis did not know which was the site of the bureau. But he suggested that the engineers who tested the turbine came from a very small provincial town located in a picturesque mountain area. It turned out to be the right place. Once there, the Soviet engineers found a deserted house containing many drawing boards stored there for the design bureau. Later, they located the design bureau—a small, two-story house on the outskirts of the town—and portions of documents on submarine designs with unique power plants: steam-gas turbine plants.
Analysis of the documents revealed that a highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide was used to produce the steam- gas. A list of the bureau staff also turned up along with the name of the design bureau Gluck auf (good luck!). With the help of the commandant of the town, about 15 former employees were located, among them Dr. Stateshny, engineers Krage, Mensen, Schumacher, Diatke, and Gribi, all of whom had some roles in development of the steam-gas turbine concept. The Germans were directed to write a report on the work of their power plant bureau and on the new submarine designs and their new power plants.
When it became known that the engineers from this bureau had designed a Type XXVI series submarine with a Walter steam-gas turbine plant (SGTP) to provide high underwater speed, the Soviet Union decided to establish a design bureau in Germany and to invite German specialists to participate (under contract). This plan also envisioned the placing of orders with German firms for a set of equipment required to prepare an operational SGTP.
The Germans had planned to construct some 200 Type XXVI U-boats—hull numbers U-4501 through U-4700— using Walter closed-cycle propulsion with diesel-electric auxiliary drive, and a snorkel breathing device. Underwater speed specification was 22.5 knots, more than twice that of contemporary U.S. Navy submarines. Armament was to consist of ten torpedo tubes—four in the bow and six angled out amidships—and firing aft. No reloads were to be carried. The first 100 boats were ordered from the Deutsche yard in Hamburg, but none had been completed when the war ended; the other boats were canceled.
The Soviet design bureau that undertook the work was headed by the chief of the Central Design Bureau (CDB) No. 18, Engineer-Captain 1st Rank A. A. Antipin. CDB- 18 in Leningrad, started by I. G. Bubnov, the designer of first Russian combat submarines, had subsequently designed all Soviet submarines. B. D. Zlatopolsky was appointed the chief engineer of the new bureau. He had formerly directed the department for special power plants at the Central Research Shipbuilding Institute, where the majority of work on submarine power plant development had concentrated on achieving high underwater speeds.
The new Antipin design bureau—named for its director—was staffed with employees from CDB-18, the Central Research Shipbuilding Institute, and German specialists headed by Dr. Stateshny. S. N. Kovalev was chief of the hull department and V. K. Stankevich managed the mechanical department.
The bureau engaged first in restoring the German Type XXVI series design, making a list of the equipment involved in the SGTP project, and identifying the firms that had developed this equipment. Antipin, Stankevich, and Stateshny visited all the firms that manufactured the equipment and concluded contracts for its fabrication. The Lisholm company, which manufactured screw compressors, was an exception because it was in Sweden.
The work progressed quickly. All of the documentation developed by the Antipin Bureau was forwarded to Leningrad. This included drawings, technical descriptions, and instruction manuals as well as the equipment for the steam-gas turbine plant.
In 1946, CDB-18 in Leningrad, on the basis of documentation from the Antipin Bureau, was able to recreate the design of the German Type XXVI submarine as it had been developed in the Gluck auf bureau in Blankenburg. The work in Leningrad was headed by S. A. Egorov under the supervision of B. M. Malinin, the first chief designer of the majority of Soviet submarines, who at that time worked in the Central Research Shipbuilding Institute. The design was assigned project No. 616; Table 1 provides tactical and technical data on the submarine.
Some technical solutions adopted by the Germans for the Type XXVI could not, obviously, satisfy Soviet designers and sailors (e.g., small buoyancy margin, amidships torpedo tubes directed aft, the large volume of pressure hull compartments). Accordingly, immediately after critical consideration of the design, CDB-18 began to develop an original design of a submarine with a steam-gas turbine plant and designated it Project 617. The submarines were to use Soviet equipment except for the steam-gas turbine plant. A preliminary design for the 617 was completed by the end of 1947 under the leadership of P. S. Savinov, a most experienced mechanical engineer, who had participated in the development of all Soviet submarines, and a young engineer named S. N. Kovalev, who later became the general designer of Soviet nuclear-powered ballistic- missile submarines. Malinin supervised Project 617 but it was his last job—he died in 1949.
After the analysis of variants of the preliminary design, tactical and technical assignment for further submarine 617 design was developed and approved. The project was considered of utmost importance, since the anticipated high underwater speed would open up a whole new range of tactics.
In May 1948, a second Soviet submarine design bureau— Special Design Bureau (SDB) 143—was established in conjunction with Project 617. Its mission was to design submarines with new types of power plants to provide high underwater speed. The bureau included a group of specialists from CDB-18, specialists from the Antipin Bureau in Germany (including ten German specialists) and the team from the special power plant department of the Central Research Shipbuilding Institute. Antipin was appointed to head the bureau and named the chief designer of project 617; deputy chief designer was Kovalev.
The new bureau had two locations in the Leningrad area: Shuvalovo, where the submarine design departments were located, and the Sudomekh Shipyard, where the research departments were located, which developed new power plants, and test-beds where these plants were tested until they reached full power. In March 1953, the entire Project 617 team returned to CDB-18 together with its portfolio. From that moment, SDB-143 was chartered to design the first Soviet nuclear-powered submarine. Thus, the design of the first high-submerged-speed submarine started and finished in the same design bureau, which now is called the Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering “Rubin.”
After the development of the sketch and technical designs of submarine 617, the bureau transferred a set of working drawings to the Sudomekh Shipyard for construction of the submarine.1 Because the design was so revolutionary, an experimental submarine was to be built and series construction delayed until trials were completed. Simultaneously with the construction and testing of the experimental submarine, the engineers designed additional advanced projects of submarines where hydrogen-peroxide was used. These concepts were never implemented because of the development of nuclear power plants.
During construction of the Project 617 submarine, the design bureau assumed responsibilities unusual for such an organization. For example, the employees were entrusted by the shipyard to accept the equipment from the suppliers, construct and service steam-turbine plant tests, and install the low water hydrogen-peroxide system. The design bureau was in charge of the purchasing, storage, transportation, and loading of hydrogen peroxide for the submarine. The supply of main materials for the SGTP tests— hydrogen peroxide, fuel, catalyzer for decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide, etc.—was done by the design bureau.
At Sudomekh, a land prototype was prepared with the hydrogen-peroxide storage space and steam-gas turbine of the future submarine as its main components, mounted in the turbine compartment hull section where conditions close to those of the submarine were simulated.2 It was assembled with equipment received from Germany; missing parts were manufactured in the mechanical workshop of the design bureau. To permit SGTP tests throughout the entire power range up to full power, a hydraulic brake was mounted outside of the compartment to simulate the propeller characteristics of the submarine. The “outboard” condensate cooler was located there as well.
Table 1: Specifications |
||
|
Project 616 |
Project 617 |
Crew |
33 |
51 |
Displacement, normal, cubic meters |
694 |
950 |
Length overall (feet) |
184.3 |
204 |
Beam, maximum (feet) |
17.8 |
19.9 |
Draft, medium,(feet) |
19 |
16.6 |
Buoyancy margin, as a percentage of normal displacement |
11% |
28% |
Diving depth, meters |
150 |
200 |
Forward torpedo tubes (21-inch) |
4 |
6 |
Side torpedo tubes, (21-inch) |
6 |
- |
Spare torpedoes, number |
- |
6 |
Total torpedoes |
10 |
12 |
Endurance, days (crew) |
30 |
45 |
Maximum underwater speed (SGTP) (knots) |
19.6 |
20.0 |
Range at maximum speed (nautical miles) Underwater speed with electric |
130 |
120 |
propulsion motor (knots) |
8.3 |
9.3 |
Range at this speed (nm) |
12.0 |
13.4 |
Range with electric motor at creep speed of 2 knots (nm) |
122 |
— |
Maximum surface speed (knots) |
11.6 |
11.0 |
Power plant ratings (in horsepower) |
|
|
|
Project 616 |
Project 617 |
Steam-gas turbine plant |
7,500 |
7,250 |
Main diesel engine |
575 |
600 |
Diesel-generator |
275 |
450 |
Electric propulsion motor |
536 |
540 |
Creeping motor |
71 |
— |
Economic speed motor |
|
140 |
The test program for the test SGTP was divided into five principal stages:
• Tests of the hydrogen peroxide decomposition chamber carried out in a special armored box
• Tests of the power supply unit: three-component pump, four-component regulator and three-component changeover switch
• Tests of the steam-gas generation unit
• Tests of the condensate system: a turbine condenser, outboard condensate cooler and condensate pump
• Comprehensive tests of the plant as a whole including the determination of time required for starting, transition from mode to mode, reaching 100% power, and six-hour continuous operation at full power
Chief designer Stankevich and engineers Y. N. Gurfein, I. M. Ozerov, P. P. Petrov, and Olga Vladimirovna Kovalevskaya directed the SGTP tests. German specialists took part in the work as consultants. They worked in a separate area, their role decreasing as Soviet specialists gained experience, and in 1951 they returned to Germany.
The tests were completed by the beginning of 1951. The authors remember that late evening when, after the six- hour, full-power operation, the head of the submarine department of the Navy Shipbuilding Headquarters, M. A. Rudnitsky, cordially congratulated the participants of the tests. (Rudnitsky had been the chief designer of the XIV series of submarines, the largest Soviet submarines of the prewar period).3
In May 1951 the SGTP was dismantled and carefully examined for defects. Any problems discovered were corrected, and the power plant and its control panel were treated for preservation and transferred to the Sudomekh Shipyard to be installed in the experimental submarine.
Submarine 617—given the tactical number S-99—had been laid down at Sudomekh on 5 February 1951. She was launched one year later, on 5 February 1952, and afloat testing began on 6 June 1952.
The S-99 was relatively short, with the hull slightly stretched in the vertical direction, and had a small, streamlined access hatch (there was no enclosed conning tower compartment), and rationally designed fins. As a result, she demonstrated high speed and good maneuvering qualities.
The double-hull submarine had six compartments separated by watertight bulkheads. Starting at the bow and working aft, the submarine was divided into torpedo, battery (living), control, diesel engine, turbine, and aft compartments. The bulkheads of the control compartment were designed for a pressure of 10 kilograms per square centimeter (142.2 pounds per square inch [psi]); the remaining three for a pressure of 2 kilograms per square centimeter (28.4 psi). Eight free-flooding main ballast tanks, fuel tanks, and permeable recesses with 32 plastic storage containers for low-water hydrogen-peroxide were located in the space between the hulls. Reserve buoyancy and isolation of the pressure hull by water-tight bulkheads ensured that the submarine could float despite flooding of one compartment and an adjacent side ballast tank.
The power plant distinguished the S-99 from her predecessors. With the submarine at a depth of 95 to 130 feet, the 7,250-horsepower steam-gas turbine plant transferred 6,050 horsepower to the propeller; the remaining power drove the screw compressor that pumped carbon dioxide overboard. The hydrogen-peroxide plant was started at depths ranging from periscope depth to 262 feet; start-up time normally was just more than two minutes; an accelerated start from a cold state to full power took nine and one-half minutes.
With the steam-gas turbine plant at full power, the S-99 was capable of more than 20 knots submerged. Best of all, she could sustain these speeds for six hours, which increased considerably the tactical possibilities open to her. Although the operational principles of the low-water hydrogen-peroxide steam-gas turbine plant are well known now, we learned them at the time on the 617 plant.
The low-water hydrogen-peroxide was pressed out from plastic bags to the three-component transfer pump (the hydrogen-peroxide, fuel, and condensate) and delivered to the decomposition chamber where a catalyst helped break it down to gaseous oxygen (37%) and water steam (63%). Steam-oxygen then entered the combustion chamber along with very pure, increased flash-point, kerosene-type hydrocarbon fuel. Combustion products consisting of 15% carbon dioxide and 85% water steam passed through the heat accumulator, which served to equalize the thermal inertia of steam-gas while changing operation modes, before entering the turbine.
The steam-gas temperature was constant (550° Centigrade), but pressure varied depending on the load and was about 21 kilograms per square centimeter (298 psi) at a turbine speed of 9,500 revolutions per minute. Exhaust steam-gas from the turbine entered the condenser and the carbon dioxide was separated, compressed by the screw compressor to the level of the outside pressure, and ejected through a special spraying device with 10,000 small openings to ensure the carbon dioxide went into solution in the water. The gravity-flow cooler, located in the space between the hulls under the pressure hull, was used for condensate cooling; a portion of the cooled condensate was used for the steam-gas temperature control.
Power was transferred from the turbine to the propeller through a, two-stage reduction gear, which lowered shaft speed to 480 revolutions per minute. Of course, the compressor and the main propulsion motor, which acted as a generator to supply power for auxiliary machinery, also consumed some power.
At slow speeds and when surfaced, the submarine was powered by a diesel-electric plant that included the main eight-cylinder, four-stroke diesel engine and an auxiliary six-cylinder diesel-generator of the same design. The main diesel could be coupled to the propeller or used only to power the generator; the auxiliary diesel provided either storage battery charging or propulsion motor operation. Both diesels could be coupled to drive the propeller while on the surface or, using a retractable snorkel mast, at periscope depth.
In spite of the considerable time spent testing the steam- gas turbine plant at the test-bed, inevitable troubles cropped up during mooring and sea trials:
• Loose hydrogen-peroxide containers
• Hydrogen-peroxide leaks that caused fires and small explosions called “claps” because of quick decomposition of hydrogen peroxide when it contacted dirt or oil
• Insufficient stability in the catalyst operation
Shipyard tests showed that torsional oscillations of the main diesel engine appeared within a wider range of revolutions than anticipated by previous calculations. It required time to eliminate these defects, and the test period was extended. Only on 26 March 1956, after successful official tests culminated the 12-year developmental program, was the S-99 commissioned for experimental operation.
One cannot but mark the creative contribution to submarine construction of the submarine’s chief designer, A. A. Antipin, and his deputies—Chief Engineer of the Bureau P. Z. Golosovsky, S. N. Kovalev, P. S. Savinov, V. P. Goryachov, V. K. Stankevich, Deputy Head of Bureau for Research B. D. Zlatopolsky, and many others.
One cannot but remember the sailors who devoted their knowledge and energy to construction of the S-99— the employees of the Navy Research Institute M. I. Rybakov and M. M. Chetvertakov, the first commanding officer of the submarine, K. G. Simonov, and Engineer Officer S. G. Khryap; also the senior builders at the Su- domekh Shipyard—Engineers E. S. Bogdanov and A. I. Khleborodov, and the Leading Engineer of the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry, Mrs. A. I. Ivanova.
From 1956 to 1959, the S-99 was in a special brigade for training and overhaul of Baltic Fleet submarines. She put to sea 98 times, covering more than 6,000 nautical miles on the surface and about 800 nautical miles submerged— including 315 nautical miles using the SGTP.
On 19 May 1959, the submarine was involved in a serious accident. During a routine plant startup at a depth of 80 meters there was an explosion in the turbine compartment. The plant did not start and the submarine surfaced, down by the stem. The diesel compartment reported: “A fire and explosion in compartment 5” [turbine] and “Sprinkling has [begun] in compartment 5.” The alarm was sounded. Visual observation through sight glasses in the compartment four and six bulkheads confirmed that compartment five was flooded. As the submarine was surfaced, the commanding officer made the decision to return to the base under her own power.
High pressure compressors were started and kept running continuously to pressurize the damaged main ballast tanks and keep them from flooding. Several hours later, the submarine reached her base. When the water was pumped out of the turbine compartment, investigators found that the hull valve of the hydrogen peroxide supply pipeline had failed. The explosion, which occurred when the hydrogen-peroxide decomposed after coming into contact with mud that had gotten into the valve, ripped an eight-centimeter (3.1-inch) opening in the upper portion of the pressure hull, and this is what caused the compartment to flood.
The S-99 was not repaired after the accident, because most of the SGTP mechanisms had to be replaced—which would have been very expensive—and, by that time, the first nuclear-powered submarine had joined the Soviet Navy. As a result, the S-99 was scrapped. Nevertheless, building the submarine had been a valuable exercise: the experience obtained by using a steam-gas-turbine plant on submarines played a very significant role in the creation of nuclear steam-turbine plants.
1. The Sudomekh yard is located in downtown St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), located between the Neva and Moika rivers, separated by the latter from the Admiralty yard. The yard became a major shipbuilding facility (Shipyard No. 196) in the 1930s at which time it built submarines of the SHCH and M classes. Prior to World War II, the yard constructed several experimental submarines with closed-cycle propulsion plants. The yard was damaged extensively during the war but was rapidly rebuilt in the late 1940s for submarine construction. In 1972 Sudomekh and the adjacent Admiralty yard were consolidated into a single entity: the United Admiralty Association.
2. The U.S. Navy similarly installed a prototype of the SI W pressurized-water reactor plant for the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) in a hull section at Arco, Idaho; it was identical to the reactor plant subsequently installed in the submarine.
3. The 18 submarine cruisers of the XIV series (K class) were completed from 1940 through 1947; these 320.3-foot submarines, which displaced 1,480 tons surfaced and 2,095 tons submerged, were armed with ten 21-inch (533-mm) torpedo tubes (24 torpedoes), 20 chute-laid mines, and two deck guns.