...Now they(the Americans) will tremble again
– at the sound of our(the Russians) silence…
-Captain Marko Ramius to his crewmen, just before the launch of the Red October’s Magnetohydrodynamic propulsion, played by Sean Connery in The Hunt for Red October.
Magnetohydrodynamic propulsion. Sounds complex, huh?
Actually it wasn’t as it sounds. You see, starts from the back, propulsion is referring to create a lift or push. Hydrodynamic is taken from a from a Greek word “hydra” which means water. The dynamic word is refering to the usage of water and magnetic of course we use the power of magnet. By obeying the Flemming Left Hand Law, combined with magnetic field and current, thus a force will create a propulsion at the back of the drive.
The Hunt for Red October
The so-called application of magnet came to my knowledge when I watched a movie adapted from
Tom Clancy’s novel called The Hunt for Red October. I have the
DVD and still watch it till today again and again without boring. I was really fascinated
the way of the submarine was maneuvered and the way of their attack using the torpedoes.
What pull my interest
the most is that how a simple principle was put to apply in a submarine which has no moving parts at all and at the same time produce the sound of fully silence which indeed a need for a submarine. He wrote it in a way where the submarine Red October was finally in the hand of US according to that film. But the bottom line is the Russian have made it come true.
Is the submarine really exist?
In reality,
MHD, which they take is as a short term, still haven’t develop yet to a submarine. Maybe they were already, but never come to know in the public. The
F-117 Stealth Nighhawk already flew for 10 years before the public know its exsistence in 1980s. The torpedo Skval which uses the
supercavitation effect[which i already wrote about it
] only known to US intelligence only after 15 years it was created. So, maybe or maybe not this kind of submarine may already created for military use. Only God knows.
But the Japanese already create Yamato II which uses its power. But it wasn’t a submarine. It’s a boat. U can refer down under for further reading bout the boat. It was back in 1960s where Prof Hannes Alfvén started the study on MHD which brings him to win the Noble Price in 1970.
How the Russian made it possible? Or perhaps the Americans or maybe the others?
I’m not gonna tell you how the
MHD works. You can check it yourself down at the bottom for further readings. I’m just want to show you how the Russian had made
MHD possible in a submarine. A brief of understanding can give you a concept on how they put the device in the submarine. Just like the yamato, the catterpiller are located in front of the submarine both on the starboard and port side. Sometimes it can be mistaken as the torpedo hull. Just refer to the picture below which I already did some simple sketch to sum up the explaination.
So by letting the water in, the current will generate and thus will create a propulsion when water goes out.
There was a scene in The Hunt for Red October where they show from the back both propeller were stop turning but the submarine continue to move forward! It was awesome! This happen when the caterpillar was turned on. Therefore, no moving parts produce no sound
which are truly undetectable to sonar. Pretty cool huh?
Akula 941 or according to US Military classification, the Typhoon Class
So, what it the future of this technology?
As we all know, the fossil fuel are getting much limited. In this scenario, nuclear power take its place in many of the military submarines and ships [They didn’t put it for commercial ships due to safety reason]. In my humble opinion, the design of the caterpillar in Red October is consider
illogic and makes no sense. Come and see me if you want the explaination. However the whole thing is
plausible. For further reading and better understanding, see article:
Article 1: MHD propulsion for the classroom by G. Font & S. Dudley, USAF Acedemy
Article 2: MHD Propulsion by Jimmy Nelson
Article 3: About MHD Drive
Article 4: MHD
Article 5: MagnetoHydroDynamic Thruster from RMCybernatics
Article 6: This article explain with simple equations on MHD
Article 7: About Prof Hannes Alfvén
Sunday, December 18th, 2005 
aku nak letak MHD ni kat moto aku, then moto aku bleh berenang kat pantai kelebang….
mungkin boleh kot. Hahaha
Cool…
kalau presentation kite td pasal MHD nih for sure marks 50/15 punye ah. lol
maybe maybe
lebih full mark yg tak tahan tu. muahahaha
all this sound so geek to me
maybe for u, but not for me
ahaha…samaler winter…not within my jurisdiction…
Man,you sure like war machines… I watched the hunt for red october and I have to say it was good but unfortunately I didnt really pay attention to the detail that much.That movie was ages ago and i dont think i remember the complicated stuff such as ‘magnetowhateveritis??’. But glad you brought the story up…. I might watch it again and try to pay more attention on the details this time..
geek? lol. you fail scientific phenomenon and you fail even harder for not acknowledging its nigh-deityness in our solar system.
To mr Arth:
i kind of having tht military-minded when it comes to writting anything about technology. i believe whtever new technology can be further develop through R&D with a help of experiment conduct by the help of the military.
u damn right!
u better make ur ‘revision’ on the movie, maybe u can post ur view on the movie. notify me if u did.
To mr Hariri:
wht the fish u talking about haa ??!!
To mr Arsyad:
i think the number is 3. i’m not sure.
yup, it’s good for u, good for me too.
i meant to say..
“All this sound so GREEK to me”.. not geek..
typo marr
lol. wtf is so ‘greek’ about it?
Is it the word hidro tht derived from ‘hydra’ makes the whole thing sounds so ‘GREEK’ to you ???
wht the fish GREEK have to do with this MHD ?? 
MHD propulsion is cool.. but i have to write a paper 20 pages long about it for my studies
) or about corrosion of electrodes…
So i read about Yamato 1, MHD torpedoes and submarines, UFOs bringing MHD technology to “the choosen ones” in Area 51 etc. etc.
You’re right – maybe after 10 years news about hypersonic flight and all this stuff will come out – but i have to graduate sooner
Interesting thing: i haven’t found anything about influence of strong magnets to crew on MHD ships (must be health-disturbing )
Anyway, i would appreciate if you mail me any other stuff you have on MHD drives. BTW, nice site
[...] *Please refer to my article I wrote on Dec 18th 2005 about Magnetohydrodynamics [MHD} Propulsion [...]
could u please tell me more about the economic considerations ?
Thank u so much for ur reply but what i wanted to know that is it commercially viable or is it better to use some other renewable sources .plus it would really mean a lot if i could get a rough estimate as to how much does it cost to produce electricity using magnetohydrodynamics and its efficiency etc ,i tried searchin on net but could find out that it is the forth most efficient way to produce electricity