Unlike steel, aluminum does not have a fatigue limit. If you keep stresses in steel below a certain threshold, it will basically endure forever. That's why you can make steel springs. In aluminum, stresses are cumulative no matter how small.
No. Certain alloys and heat treatments of steel have terrible fatigue life. Same with Aluminum. The issue is the crystal structures and inclusions (what is alloyed with the Fe or Al) that create the material properties. The geometry of the crystals (size, dimensions, orientation, and how they interconnect to each other) is what gives a metal it's mechanical properties. The different inclusions (alloy material) that is added changes how the crystals can move relative to each other or the chemical composition of the crystals and the chemical bonds made by those crystals. It is possible to design a aluminum structure for flexural fatigue life. But there are far better alloys of steel for that task for given price point. Inherently the problem is just poor engineering and metallurgy. The guys building it did what they were told. The guys designing it were either mislead as to it's use case or were incompetent. My gut says incompetent.
@@JM-nt5fm bingo. I'm a cycling tech and I stay away from the science of metallurgy, but if I try to straighten anyone's frame I have to check the manufacturer and see if the alloy of aluminum or steel can safely be straightened or if I need to tell them it's a loss. I've seen a seemingly bomber steel bike develop major cracks from fatigue, and aluminum alloy bikes with thick enough tubes bounce back after getting a little warped. Usually comes down to the thickness and quality of the metal (and the severity of the bend of course)
The ship I was stationed had an aluminum superstructure. Concussions from 5 inch guns split the welds even though those welds were as thick as a man's fist.
Sorry are you saying that , the aluminum structure is about 4+ inches thick? Or that the welds were 4 inches wide? Which case I would Not be surprised at that. As what I could see it was too much stress/Flexing on that area. When BC built their fast ferries they found out that that the weld areas had to be clean, something I had learnt 10+ yrs earlier. Does sound much same type of Prob (aluminum ) when the British built their ship which burnt in the Falklands war.
I can’t even blame it. I’d crack on the first shot from one of them mfs if I was the structure too. I was also curious how the aluminum ships were doing so I appreciate that update as well, thanks.
@@edwardcarberry1095 No. The bulkheads were not much over a inch I believe. The cracks kept occurring at the welds so the shipyard tried to compensate by making these ridiculously thick welds. They still cracked.
@@fearthehoneybadger My knowledge on aluminum is thin at best, sorry. If it was a steel structure I would ask if it was a carbon depletion ? Does aluminum have that kind of problem? Thanks.
The Perry class had more than 20 ships - WAY more. They build 71 of them. My dad was CO of the USS Reid, FFG-31. It was a tough little ship. Recently, during a ShootEX event, a Perry class frigate was the target and took an absurd number of hits before it sank.
Looks like we got that number wrong. Thanks for pointing it out! Even a simple google search now return the number 55, but I believe that excludes ships built by international companies.
@@MotoRiderTube 6 were built for the R.A.N - 4 were built in the USA and 2 built in Australia making 6 of the Adelaide class (Perry class variant). The USA built were commissioned 1980 - 1984 and the last retired in 2017 (a long time for a legacy hull to serve). The 2 built in Australia currently serve in the Chilean Navy after transfer in 2019. The Australian government got their money worth and then some for these legacy built Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates.
If I remember correctly, we got that number from a US Navy presentation, which talked about cracks on their ships. Either that source was incorrect, or we made a mistake in the process of writing the script. Regardless, thank you all for caring and clarifying 😊👍
@@NotWhatYouThink I'm wondering if the source indicated that over 20 of the ships had cracks. That could be it. The only reason I brought it up was emotional attachment to the ship and that it was the most produced class of ship in recent history.
Former navy welder here 01-12. From what I remember hearing. All ships with aluminum superstructures have had issues with cracks. I was on an aircraft carrier and a submarine tender during my service. Oh yeah. Aluminum is a pain in the butt to weld after being in contact with seawater. The LCS class should have been made with steel hulls.
We had an Aussie built fast catamaran operating on Cook Strait here in NZ 🇳🇿 for a while. The story was, that every time they had a rough crossing, they would be welding up cracks afterward. Mind you, they could only do that after they located a shipyard welder from the former Yugoslavia, resident in NZ, who could do that specific type of aluminium welding and train other welders in the necessary skills.
@@Lithane97 If the hull can't handle it, it was a bad concept, so you either salvage what you can (and make them go slower) or get them out of commission and build something else. Sorry but "not breaking under your own engine power" is a primary design objective for anything self-respecting
Another way to think about the 15 knot speed limit: If you wanted to go from A to B as fast as possible. You'd rather be on that refueling ship instead of this state of the art warship. It's too dangerous for this warship to keep up with the blistering speed of it's refueling vessel... You might as well buy more refueling logistics ships and retrofit them to become warships...at least then they can move at speed.
This result of modern Education .guys testing 5 " gun system didn't communicate with structural Hull ,and Deckplate engineer s .Congress people who Vote for these things Don't check Specs. Although a Very Few ,Do .
President: "Send LCS for pursue and destroy mission." Commander: "sorry sir the sea is rough it'll break" President: "what else do we have?" Commander: "we have a passenger ferry it can go faster and is stronger than LCS." President: "TF"
These ships are equivalent to Russia's aircraft carrier in some points: 1. It costs a lot of money to operate but they are still using it. 2. Needs careful sailing because things might break apart even with the slightest unfavorable conditions.
Thankfully (or not, depending on your point of view) the US has the financial depth to take a financial hit like this without missing a beat. I think the fundamental problem is that we all KNOW that fact. In the knowing of it we are more likely to make more risky plans and less likely to call a halt to an underperforming program of design, development, or procurement order. PARTICULARLY when it's a massively expensive item that relies on economies of scale to reduce overall cost per unit. Something goes wrong, costs skyrocket, the number of units to be acquired slashed, and around and around we go, whichever party is in power changes not that status quo! 🤪👈 That said, Russia only built two of their "aircraft cruisers". They built them without having built any of the infrastructure neccessary to support them, without the planes to fly from them, and without the necessary battlegroup attendant fleet or any tactical doctrine to even THEORETICALLY use them effectively in any way whatsoever. The COST was...... insane too. The fraction of the entire Russian military budget spent on just those ships was utterly, absurdly mind numbing. Granted, they did what Russia always does to compensate for its military and/or political inadequacies - they stuffed it with a comic lying obscene number of guns, missiles, bluster, and lies. It didn't work any better then than it has for Putin now. Also different is the importance of the ships to the military and nation. Our LCS ships were never going to be flag ships of the US Navy. Our national pride wasn't at stake. The exact opposite was the case for the thwn Soviets, now the Russian federation.
The two cases are not truly comparable. Let me explain. There is nothing wrong with the Kuznetsov's design or structure - the problem is the supportive infrastructure and the consequences of not having it. It's systems, such as the engines, generators and water desalination plants have been abused due to the lack of said supportive infrastructure. And to finish off about the Kuznetsov, India and China both operate Kuznetsov-class ships and they have no major problems, why? Because they had infrastructure capable of servicing such large ships beforehand. The USA has the opposite problem. It's supportive infrastructure is second to none, but it's ships have design and structural flaws. Furthermore, the USA has had structural problems with it's ships for decades now and with multiple classes of ships. Finally, we are comparing a ship from the 1980's to modern ships made from the 2010's onwards. What I am trying to say is - the USA needs to abandon these dysfunctional failures of ships and design and build new ones that actually work.
Aluminum will always crack with repeated stress. The biggest snafu is designing the ships in a way not anticipating having to do frequent fatigue repairs and making such repairs difficult to do. Aluminum works on aircraft because you can reasonable predict the load patterns and cycles and know when you need to replace things or retire the aircraft. Ships have the randomness of the waves to deal with which adds in so many variables that it's impossible to predict. Magnesium and zinc both are metals that don't fatigue but react rather quickly with salt water in galvanic corrosion and titanium is another HCP material which doesn't fatigue but is much more expensive and difficult to weld and work with. This leaves the good old Body Centric Cubed crystalline materials of iron, moly, chromium, vanadium that interestingly enough all alloy together into something we call steel very nicely which have a defined endurance limit. There were good reasons for the Independence design to be built from all aluminum. From fuel savings, to being non-magnetic. But thrashing through the ocean at 40 knots or more it should have been known they would suffer from constant fatigue cracks considering how long Austal has been using aluminum and the long history of it.
I have an idea for multipurpose amphibious assault ships with modular runways. Two ships joined together would have a length of 475 meters and could be as resistant to waves as a skyscraper. Shock absorbers can be used, which make it flexible and are used in the columns of skyscrapers. Thus, aircraft carrier costs are reduced by 10 times.
They were literally built as they were the lowest possible cost to keep the shipbuilding infrastructure running. They aren't even meant to be good combat ships.
@@Definitely-nothunter It is a scam. Even if it wasn't, it's much cheaper in the long run to make something right the first time and not have to basically completely rebuild it every couple years, On top of high maintenance and greatly reduced performance. This is true no matter what product you look at. You could get $15 shoes at walmart, but you'll be back in a couple weeks for a new pair. Or you could get a high quality pair for $150 that will last you years.
@@tacticalhandyman710 The sad thing is that it applies everywhere in our economy. I remember when older appliances used to last for 20 years. Try getting more than 5 years out of a modern washer or dryer now. Older roofing materials would last 50+ years. Today, if you get 20 years out of a new roof, you are close to needing a replacement. I guess it's just the way of the world. Some Roman guy probably groused about how his older chariot lasted 10 years and the new one only five.
@@swaghauler8334 It's called planned obsolescence, Companies realized if they made lower-quality appliances then they could save money and then in a few years get your money AGAIN when it tears up, I tried to tell my family not to get rid of our old stove from 1993 that needed a new gasket but they wouldn't listen, They bought a newer GE stove that works good but I give it 3-5 years max.
US Navy: "OK all we want is a ship that is fast and modular." *Defense contractors hand over ships* US Navy: "This is neither fast, nor modular WTF?" Defense Contractors: "We tried and that's what really matters. Also all contracts are cost reimbursable, so it's no our problem."
I thought it was more like: US Navy: "OK all we want is a ship that is fast and modular." Defense contractors hand over ships /cracks develop/ Defense Contractors: "You didn't say they needed stay in one piece."
The "cost plus reimbursable" is probably the worst contracting move possible.....puts ALL RISK on the Navy. (On us Taxpayers, to put a finer point on it)
The LCS was a result of extreme forward thinking in what the Navy could achieve in the 2000s. Many of those laser and railgun concepts these ships were designed to support are now abandoned developments. Futurism is great but you have to do the basic research before you build infrastructure on nonexistent technology.
Sharp transitions, straight lines and flat surfaces don't withstand well the repetitive, dynamic stresses put on a sea vessel. This ship design flies in the face of that and is suffering the predictable consequences. It's hard to believe this obvious outcome wasn't realized in the testing/development stage.
@@gabrielpalileo3294 Yes I understand and agree. I stand by my premise though. They could've overcome these basic inequities but they failed in this instance obviously. Again just my opinion. thanks
@randomguy9777 The question is, why would this tpe of ship need to reduce radar cross section? Isn´t it supposed to operate only inside US national borders?
I feel that navies in general should use Toyota type construction methods and materials: reliable time tested hull materials and propulsion. Built one of a new kind and test it for at least two years before committing to a large order. It might sound impractical compared with present procurement doctrine (to spread out the cost of R&D on a large order) but it seems the right alternative based on recent experiences. The Zumwalt makes this point more evident. It's just a point of view of the large costs involved in shipbuilding and commissioning.
5:33 HEY! We take those ferries all the time to get to the Gulf islands or Vancouver island and the Sunshine coast, it's like part of the highway system except you have to pay $100 to take your car. They have flat bottoms and where they operate in the Straight of Georgia, it can get pretty rough, sometimes they would slam down pretty hard, but always felt so safe. Theyre good ships those ferries.
It wasn't just riveting causing it, the key factor was the square shaped windows, which you have never seen on the side of another jet airliner since. The corners concentrate the stress fracture leading to tearing/failure.
I’m a welder. I work for a company that builds aluminum LNG heat exchangers. We always X-ray the structural and pressure vessel welds. Not only that but we also dye penetrant test our welds. If there are any issues we remove the metal and re-weld it.
@@isafatcat Depending on who you ask, either the F-35s, the B-1s, the Space Force, their "chair force" living conditions... Probably anything except the A-10 and the B-52
Independence class LCS' dont entirely make sense to me, I've heard people say that they're stealth ships because of that very angulated body, even though their radar cross section is about the same as any other Naval vessel, other than to modernize the Navy (which makes sense) but man, you'd think after this much effort and continued failure the Navy would just cut their losses on a warship that's built not really to do Naval combat things but instead it's meant to do Coast Guard things. again, fair enough everyone with a coastal border should probably be at least semi regularly patrolling the highest risk parts of that border, you'd think that this would have been another R&D program that never found success and yet LCS' are around.
Yeah they're decommissioning all of them by next year I think. Navy shipbuilding really needs to get their act together...the whole Zumwalt thing, and now this 🤦♂️. Fortunately we do at least have 3 working Zums, and if they pull off the planned stripping of the guns in place of new launch cells filled with hypersonics, she might actually save some face and be a formidable missle destroyer. Still though, come on Navy...
@@adityapatil325 The USCG doesn't want them. They're already in the process of replacing 3 of their most common ship classes with newer classes and they can already push 40 knots without breaking apart. Think of it this way: If the Navy can't afford to fix them how is the Coast Guard going to afford it?
I was stationed on a Coast Guard Cutter, WHEC 716 Dallas, all aluminum constructed, it fractured many times, in hurricanes or 20 foot seas, we basically home ported at the CG yard in Curtis Bay, MD, the ship was launched in 1968, the structure problems began in 1975, aft berthing would have 6-12 inches of sea water during hurricanes and tropical stroms
I remember the Pegasus-class hydrofoil gunboats, based in Key West, were taken out of service from hull cracks caused by the foils hitting whales. One has it’s stern nearly broken off. C’mon Navy, get your act together!
Thats’s not true about just finding out about the cracks ……. We’ve known several ships have been cracking for years because of the type of aluminum mix they used ….I remember 2018/19 hearing about the issues
You are correct. We should have been clearer. The restrictions that were imposed as a result of the cracks (and the overall extent of the problem) wasn't known until recently.
This is stated in the video. And it's not just "the type of aluminum mix they used" it's any aluminum period. There is no form of aluminum that is okay to use under constant stress, as it doesn't rebound from that stress. It rips on a microscopic level no matter how little stress is applied to it. And until reforged, those cracks never go away. Try bending a can until its dented then work out that dent, it will still be very weak in the creases no matter how perfectly reshaped it looks.
@@camojoe83 No, as I said it is the properties that aluminum has period. Maybe it's a bad design as well, but aluminum is not a good material for any level of stress.
...what navy needs are disposable (one time operation) ships. Just look at the benefits: no cracks - check no maintenance - check customized depending on a mission - check up to date tech - check perpetual procurement - check money wasted - check ...you can thank me later...:)
Of course these things need to be cheap, which means they have to be relatively small. Of course that limits it’s range, so it needs to be launched from some sort of mothership or dropped from aircraft. Then you need to put a weapon on it, and a big pile of explosives sounds like it should be able to sink a ship. Finally it needs a name, we can call it the: Tactically Ordered Rapid Peculiar Extra Devastating Object. Or TORPEDO
@@Sir_Budginton ...cheaping out on military tech never pays off. It needs to be cutting edge tech with at least a triple redundancy for guaranteed effectiveness and at lest one major flaw so it can be made in bulk. Effect of the weapon should be devastating both for enemy and american military budget...
In the 1970's there was a controversy with a new group of small cargo trucks built by Grumman out of aluminum. The problem there was cracks also. The trucks tended to get cracks in the back door frame due to sideways loads that happened from the poor trucks running through potholes that were not anticipated. Grumman was new to the truck business and lost millions in required warranty repairs to the trucks.
Its pretty remarkable how several ships can be completely built, and several more partially, only to find out the hull has a major design flaw and effectively is useless for the jobs its designed to do.
I don't know what think tank told them aluminum was good for a ship but as you can see all aluminum is in trouble when in salt water. electrolysis is one thing but fatigue is a complete killer for the material and I think the navy has figured it out and is just trying to save face with there pride and joy or what was supposed to be there pride and joy
I think they were heavily lobbied by the aluminum manufacturers. When the damage was done the Navy demanded the production of the LCS to stop in addition to every other ship using it as a superstructure and they tried to change them to steel or something. The aluminum producers hated that and said that if they did, they will sue the Navy. The producers argued that it was not the aluminum that caused it, but tests seems to say otherwise.
The other issue was what these LCS models were going to be used for... mine hunting. Low-magnetic (degaussed) steel is EXPENSIVE and HEAVY. The ship wouldn't have the speed the Navy required nor immunity to older mines IF they had used steel. The irony I see is that neither mine hunting nor littoral operations require a high degree of speed, so that speed requirement was a waste of resources for a mine hunter.
The report mentions galvanic corrosion at one point. This occurs when a potential difference typically in the tens of millivolts is set up across two dissimilar metals (assume aluminium and zinc on galvanised steel) separated by an electrolyte such as sea brine. This has been described as the aluminium "fizzing away" in cruise ships with steel hulls an aluminium superstructure. I can only assume that part of the problem here is the use of dissimilar metals in sea water not simply the engineering properties of welded aluminium. The tell tale signs of galvanic corrosion are visible corrosion a p.d. (voltage across the metals) and the evolution of hydrogen gas !
Airplane windows are clearly not circular. Most are rounded rectangles, like he said. I believe a few are of an extended-circle shape, but I've only flown on Boeing planes and they do the rounded rectangle.
@@AlexandarHullRichter Actually, windows in whatever shape, are such weak point in any design, that the airlines are going to utilize real-time TV screens in their place. Better safe than sorry?
With regards to the liberty ships, in order to manufacture them in a matter of weeks, all the metals panels of the ships hull had to be welded instead of riveted. So what had was, once a crack started to form from example shell impact, the hull would start to crack and keep on cracking until the ship was cracked in two. If a shell had damaged a panel on a riveted ship, only the panels around the impact would get cracked/destroyed, but the crack would propagate through the rivets through the rest of the ship
You'd think that with all the known issues with cracking in aluminum superstructures that it should have been obvious that building an entire class of ships out of this same material should never have been considered much less implemented. This should be even more of a no-no given that in the littoral waters where wave action would be even more pronounced and the possibility of encountering small boats turned ad-hoc military craft that if not neutralized quickly could inflict a fair bit of damage in short order. Since the USN has previous experience in how fast and complete aluminum can weaken and collapse, as was seen aboard the USS Belknap, it makes no sense to make an entire ship out of this same material. The loss of some speed would be a fair tradeoff to make to have a hull made out of steel.
It’s so stupid to build a ship out of aluminum that can not take any flexing and lack of strength from and incoming fire it would melt if on fire, they should of built them out of magnesium and would burn so hot and completely burn to nothing and at the bottom of the ocean it would still until there was nothing. And we pay these engineers big money but if they don’t have common sense they would build a hole in bottom !
There is a MASSIVE amount of vessels made of aluminum before these vessels. They are just fine, in fact they are tougher and faster than their steel counterparts.
so from what I'm seeing and I'm going to say now I'm no physics expert but judging by the fact if they come across rough water bow on they can stress mych more likely, my guess is this isn't due to the aluminum hull but the actual tri hull structure itself. the complex design of the hull literally has a massive problem where a giant bow is connected to the side hulls with a convex plate armor. every time this thing hits waves that push up on the bow you have a few seconds where the weight of the ship is hitting a wave at speeds where the waves are hitting super hard and the bow is taking that stress and carrying it to those convex plates where stress fracturing is likely as the bow wants to go up and follow the waves for a few seconds and the convex plates are going nope you stay still. this repeated stressing is whats likely causing the stress cracks to appear. if this was scaled down in the front by 30 feet it might have reduced the stresses its recieving but only minorly. if you look at smaller boats with tri hull designs they don't have massive bow structures that are more than 30% of the length of the ship. likely earlier boat designers knew if you did there'd be heavy stressing of the connection between the central hull and side hulls so they never upscaled them to this size.
I’m currently working in Mobile Alabama, in the Austal slip dredging where they are building and repairing these. One actually left yesterday they was supposed to be repaired
ALUMINIUM will always fatigue over time, unlike titanium or steel which require a given stress load. Aluminum is lite and stiff, but comes with a cost. Same thing happened to my aluminum bike frame, but not to my titanium or carbon fiber bike frames.
90 % of the bike frames sold in western countries are aluminum bike frames. They can crack, but only few does. My aluminum E bike frame has run now for 22k km, it's used to transport heavy stuff sometimes but it's still fine, in this case they didn't make the material extra thin to squeeze out the last gram for weight saving. Carbon fiber has a completely different fatigue characteristic, it can delaminate over time, and it don't bend - it stays flexible to the point where it snaps completely. Contrary to metal however carbon fiber is sensitive when it comes to side impacts, since it's a fiber material with the most strength in fiber direction. Concorde had a carbon fiber rudder, there was one case where a Concorde lost half of its rudder because of undiscovered delamination.
Tis makes me think of an aluminum jet boat I bought from an oyster farm on the coast for dirt cheap. The bow was so beat up it had patches welded up several layers thick. Is that what these ships will look like in 20 years?
The military industrial complex is not a role model of competition. In fact, outside of competing to buy the most government favor, no industrial concerns that rely on government funding for the bulk of their revenue are competitive at all with private sector manufacturers that must innovate to survive.
Interesting fact about steel hulled ships with aluminum superstructures. They use implosion welding to join the steel and aluminum. The metal comes in strips a few inches wide by two or so thick that are aluminum on one side, steel on the other. Theres a cool pattern in the middle where the sheets of metal were bonded together using explosives. Everything from the main deck up is sitting on those strips. Thats how you make a steel hulled ship with an aluminum superstructure. I worked for a few shipyards in my late teens early twenties. I picked up the metal from a supplier and was told absolutely dont let anything happen to those strips, they're expensive. Which immediately made me wonder if I was allowed to let something happen to all the other stuff I picked up. Turns out no, no i was supposed to protect that too. Stupid job.😁
I always wanted to be a failure investigator, which consequently led me into taking an interest in metallurgy and materials engineering. Shit is awesome when it breaks, because people like me can go full autistic into root cause analysis and mitigations.
How many of those analysis boil down to shouting at the braindead engineer who thought using a material without an endurance limit on an area with cyclic loading was a good idea? Because I hope not to become that kind of engineer.
In Sweden, I think it was so, they use a special carbon fiber tape on concrete bridges underneath the structural beams as reinforcement to extend their life. It is incredibly strong stuff. I suspect if they pre-taped vulnerable parts of the ship with this stuff it would significantly extend the ships service life. It could also be used in the event of cracks starting to form at sea.
@@edwardschmitt5710 A good idea is a good idea no matter where it comes from. It is better to try than not bother isn't it? Especially if it could save lives. That tape can stop a bridge collapsing including the weight of many vehicles such of cars, trucks and buses, it would rather likely be able to stop the crack entirely from forming and certainly has the strength to stop it spreading and coming apart entirely. Are you qualified to say I am wrong ?
@@OniMetsuki I build boats as a hobby. Behind me out of the window is an aluminum boat I am restoring. I have also built with fiberglass. Now whether an idea is good or not, generally speaking, would center around all the facts. In this case it would be the properties of the two materials. No one, and I mean NO ONE sandwiches ANYTHING between two metals building boats. Now lamination does occur with non metallic things in boat building particularly with polyester fiberglass resin. Your example is they put carbon fiber UNDER bridge beams. Entire boats are made of carbon fiber, particularly race boats. Your comment just races between A and Z. There is a whole alphabet in between (a science called "structural engineering" and I know there is a lot I don't know about that). Even in my little aluminum boat I cannot see where you would add "carbon fiber tape" in between the seems without weakening it. Like materials are universally used when building boats because of the stresses and loads unique to things on the ocean. There is also the expansion and contraction of material due to temperature fluctuations. Not a big deal on a bridge but.....well I really could go on and on here.....but suffice to say, NO. Even allowing if it COULD work, do you know how much that stuff costs? I know I could not afford it in the 16' boat I built. There is a reason race boats cost millions.....just "adding" a stronger material makes stuff stronger"???????? "Couldn't they just make the huge boat out of titanium"????? There I fixed the Navy's issue from my keyboard as well.
Lol any welder could of told them this was going too happen (in fact I guarantee the builders did but the office staff didn't listen to the guys that actually do the work). An to all the people that buy Ford truck with "military grade" aluminum this Is what you get to look forward too.
One notable mention: The T2 class, basically the same thing as Liberty ships and Victory ships, but tankers, had a track record of breaking in half, why? Cuz, well, the welding and the speed at which the ship was built, didn't go over well. S.S Pendleton, and S.S Fort Mercer, sank off cape cod in 1952, coincidentally, both were near each other when they sank-
other issues with LCS. -Armament: The LCS is the same size as a Fletcher class destroyer of World War II, but that ship had far more weaponry including 5 inch guns, torpedoes and anti-aircraft guns. One of the LCS missions is Anti Sub Warfare, but it has no ASW weaponry. Yes, it would have a helicopter, but what if the helicopter is broke down or off on a ferry mission. Who thought up this maximum speed of 40-50 knots? This isn't a cigarette boat for teenagers. Endurance is more important than speed...big engines and a heavy frame make a coastal ship far too big. All other modern coastal ships around the world are half its size. Twice the size means twice the target and twice the cost, all this for high speed? The LCS is the size of modern frigates and bigger than destroyers of World War II, yet has the armament of a patrol boat in order to accommodate the mysterious ultra high-speed requirement.
@@ericvardek4108 Constraints in current ship design technology make this desired combination of design characteristics in small ships difficult to realize at any cost. Speed, displacement, and significant wave height all result in considerable increases in fuel consumption, and as a result, severely limit LCS endurance and weaponry. A speed of 35 knots is not needed, not for mine hunting, not for patrolling since it burns too much fuel, and not for anti-submarine warfare. Ten knots makes little difference trying to avoid anti-ship missiles or aircraft. It would only make a difference while pursuing small boats, but then it has a helicopter. Finally, corvettes operate in unfamiliar shallow waters with reefs, sandbars, and underwater rocks, so going fast is unwise.
Sub brief lost me when he announced his disdain and disrespected San Diego firefighters in the navy fire on the Bon Homme Richard. He said some real nasty things about our Great Fire Fighters. Sub Brief is full of crap, ignore that jerk.
How to defeat the US navy? Just try and get them to meet you near a storm front. No ammo required either. I guess the trade off for speed versus usability is really clear here. Maybe steel would be a better material at least for the hull. Superstructures can tear up a bit and be fixed with gum. Hulls,.. not so.
Kinetic energy increases as the square of the velocity. Ship flex is measurable so you can stress the ship in various ways or test models, then measure the flex. This flex can be calibrated against the design software. The properties of materials used should be well known. It appears that Austal has a crummy engineering department, or management is interfering with them, and the Navy is incompetent to oversee the process.
@@arnolfoabetriabucio9244 they spent 54 billions last year on their army....and even so japan war crimes and multuple genocide in ww2, the country with the most war crimes is the us
From what I know and have heard earlier weld cracking had a lot to-do with HYDROGEN EMBRITTALMENT, 6018, 7018, 8018 etc. steel welding electrodes also called "Lo Hi electrodes" short for "Low Hydrogen" that were NOT heated in a special "rod oven", at hi temperature s for a specific length of time and use within a short time, would absorbe moisture. That translated into "weld bead cracking",
I was a Navy welder. All ships crack. What really matters is who they get to repair them. I was stationed with some real booger eaters that couldn't caulk a bathtub.
AL structures crack for the same reason a 4130 tube steel frame cracks after ANY form of electric welding - localized heat treatment from the welding process.
Aluminium performs badly in a maritime environment. The constant back and forth rocking motion, plus the corrosive seawater causes metal fatigue to develop quickly, from micro cracks to visible cracks. Even a speedboat that is made of aluminum requires frequent maintenance due to this problem. The LCS looks beautiful in appearance and it's specs looks great on paper. Inspite of this it's hard to imagine why would any navy want to use aluminum for building ships.
Never heard of this on older ships, the liberty ships problem was fixed with a belt of steel where the 2 halves of the ship was welded together. The navy has been run by crooks for tomany years.
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Why'd you change the video title? "This US Navy Ship has a CRACK problem" was perfect 🤣
Just experimenting :-)
Why would I want to talk to you idiots?
This ship is the symbol of American corruption and incompetence - a marriage of corrupt politicians and profiteering corporations
@@NotWhatYouThink BRING THE OLD TITLE BACK! ITS TOO FUNNY!
*“To show the power of flex tape I cracked this Littoral in half!”*
"12 inch wide flex tape used on both inside and outside of boat"
Phil’s finally lost it, we aren’t safe
Hahahaha awesome comment
And repaired it with ONLY Flex Tape!
Bwaaaaaa Haaaaa Haaaaa! Best comment ever!
Unlike steel, aluminum does not have a fatigue limit. If you keep stresses in steel below a certain threshold, it will basically endure forever. That's why you can make steel springs. In aluminum, stresses are cumulative no matter how small.
Yeah
I think you meant to stay steel has an infinite fatigue life as long as you stay below its strain limit
No.
Certain alloys and heat treatments of steel have terrible fatigue life. Same with Aluminum.
The issue is the crystal structures and inclusions (what is alloyed with the Fe or Al) that create the material properties.
The geometry of the crystals (size, dimensions, orientation, and how they interconnect to each other) is what gives a metal it's mechanical properties. The different inclusions (alloy material) that is added changes how the crystals can move relative to each other or the chemical composition of the crystals and the chemical bonds made by those crystals.
It is possible to design a aluminum structure for flexural fatigue life. But there are far better alloys of steel for that task for given price point.
Inherently the problem is just poor engineering and metallurgy. The guys building it did what they were told. The guys designing it were either mislead as to it's use case or were incompetent. My gut says incompetent.
@@JM-nt5fm bingo. I'm a cycling tech and I stay away from the science of metallurgy, but if I try to straighten anyone's frame I have to check the manufacturer and see if the alloy of aluminum or steel can safely be straightened or if I need to tell them it's a loss.
I've seen a seemingly bomber steel bike develop major cracks from fatigue, and aluminum alloy bikes with thick enough tubes bounce back after getting a little warped. Usually comes down to the thickness and quality of the metal (and the severity of the bend of course)
I'm wondering about your statement and the B-52 bomber....................
The ship I was stationed had an aluminum superstructure. Concussions from 5 inch guns split the welds even though those welds were as thick as a man's fist.
Sorry are you saying that , the aluminum structure is about 4+ inches thick? Or that the welds were 4 inches wide?
Which case I would Not be surprised at that.
As what I could see it was too much stress/Flexing on that area.
When BC built their fast ferries they found out that that the weld areas had to be clean, something I had learnt 10+ yrs earlier.
Does sound much same type of Prob (aluminum ) when the British built their ship which burnt in the Falklands war.
I can’t even blame it. I’d crack on the first shot from one of them mfs if I was the structure too. I was also curious how the aluminum ships were doing so I appreciate that update as well, thanks.
@@edwardcarberry1095 No. The bulkheads were not much over a inch I believe. The cracks kept occurring at the welds so the shipyard tried to compensate by making these ridiculously thick welds.
They still cracked.
Dummy thicc
@@fearthehoneybadger My knowledge on aluminum is thin at best, sorry. If it was a steel structure I would ask if it was a carbon depletion ? Does aluminum have that kind of problem?
Thanks.
6:44 NAVSEA is correct, when you remove all operational requirements from the class, nothing can impact it's readiness to do nothing
Best comment here
Yep I remember,COMNAVNICOMPOOPPAC
The LCS fleet is made up of dock queens!
USN plans retiring 24 hulls and adding 8. Like some of you, I remember the 1,000 and then 600 ship US Navy. You cannot do more WITH LESS....
Can still use them for birthday parties.
They should put flex seal on that
More of a j b weld compound. Very common and man it feels like metal when cured
Problem solved
Damn why they don't have people like u to solve problem!!
"That's a lot of damage!"
Mseal
The Perry class had more than 20 ships - WAY more. They build 71 of them. My dad was CO of the USS Reid, FFG-31. It was a tough little ship. Recently, during a ShootEX event, a Perry class frigate was the target and took an absurd number of hits before it sank.
Looks like we got that number wrong. Thanks for pointing it out!
Even a simple google search now return the number 55, but I believe that excludes ships built by international companies.
@@NotWhatYouThink Wikipedia says 71 built in total, 55 in the US, and 51 of those for the US Navy.
@@MotoRiderTube 6 were built for the R.A.N - 4 were built in the USA and 2 built in Australia making 6 of the Adelaide class (Perry class variant). The USA built were commissioned 1980 - 1984 and the last retired in 2017 (a long time for a legacy hull to serve). The 2 built in Australia currently serve in the Chilean Navy after transfer in 2019. The Australian government got their money worth and then some for these legacy built Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates.
If I remember correctly, we got that number from a US Navy presentation, which talked about cracks on their ships.
Either that source was incorrect, or we made a mistake in the process of writing the script.
Regardless, thank you all for caring and clarifying 😊👍
@@NotWhatYouThink I'm wondering if the source indicated that over 20 of the ships had cracks. That could be it. The only reason I brought it up was emotional attachment to the ship and that it was the most produced class of ship in recent history.
"Here's your ship! Now get out there. Just avoid, wind, waves, and going fast."
:/
😅
Meanwhile, old enemy ships just crashing through the waves.
You forgot gallium
Just avoid using it
Can we just avoid water alltogether? She seems to get seasick.
Former navy welder here 01-12. From what I remember hearing. All ships with aluminum superstructures have had issues with cracks. I was on an aircraft carrier and a submarine tender during my service. Oh yeah. Aluminum is a pain in the butt to weld after being in contact with seawater. The LCS class should have been made with steel hulls.
We had an Aussie built fast catamaran operating on Cook Strait here in NZ 🇳🇿 for a while. The story was, that every time they had a rough crossing, they would be welding up cracks afterward. Mind you, they could only do that after they located a shipyard welder from the former Yugoslavia, resident in NZ, who could do that specific type of aluminium welding and train other welders in the necessary skills.
Well sure. And so to account for weight differential: 4X horsepower or just go nuke.
@@ericvardek4108 or accept going slower
@@marcogenovesi8570 defeats the entire concept, which was speed lol.
@@Lithane97 If the hull can't handle it, it was a bad concept, so you either salvage what you can (and make them go slower) or get them out of commission and build something else. Sorry but "not breaking under your own engine power" is a primary design objective for anything self-respecting
Another way to think about the 15 knot speed limit: If you wanted to go from A to B as fast as possible. You'd rather be on that refueling ship instead of this state of the art warship. It's too dangerous for this warship to keep up with the blistering speed of it's refueling vessel... You might as well buy more refueling logistics ships and retrofit them to become warships...at least then they can move at speed.
Pull a CV1 Langley
Thanks for the shout!
You deserved it 😊👍🏼
As a seaman I can confirm we do fall through cracks more often than you think. 😂
😆👍
This result of modern Education .guys testing 5 " gun system didn't communicate with structural Hull ,and Deckplate engineer s .Congress people who Vote for these things Don't check Specs. Although a Very Few ,Do .
President: "Send LCS for pursue and destroy mission."
Commander: "sorry sir the sea is rough it'll break"
President: "what else do we have?"
Commander: "we have a passenger ferry it can go faster and is stronger than LCS."
President: "TF"
President: why did we build this design
Commander: it looked cool 💀
These ships are equivalent to Russia's aircraft carrier in some points:
1. It costs a lot of money to operate but they are still using it.
2. Needs careful sailing because things might break apart even with the slightest unfavorable conditions.
Dude good point. Fortunately, I like to think we’re pragmatic enough to take the L
3. Unless a *Special Operation* was declared.
Thankfully (or not, depending on your point of view) the US has the financial depth to take a financial hit like this without missing a beat. I think the fundamental problem is that we all KNOW that fact. In the knowing of it we are more likely to make more risky plans and less likely to call a halt to an underperforming program of design, development, or procurement order. PARTICULARLY when it's a massively expensive item that relies on economies of scale to reduce overall cost per unit. Something goes wrong, costs skyrocket, the number of units to be acquired slashed, and around and around we go, whichever party is in power changes not that status quo! 🤪👈
That said, Russia only built two of their "aircraft cruisers". They built them without having built any of the infrastructure neccessary to support them, without the planes to fly from them, and without the necessary battlegroup attendant fleet or any tactical doctrine to even THEORETICALLY use them effectively in any way whatsoever. The COST was...... insane too. The fraction of the entire Russian military budget spent on just those ships was utterly, absurdly mind numbing. Granted, they did what Russia always does to compensate for its military and/or political inadequacies - they stuffed it with a comic lying obscene number of guns, missiles, bluster, and lies.
It didn't work any better then than it has for Putin now.
Also different is the importance of the ships to the military and nation. Our LCS ships were never going to be flag ships of the US Navy. Our national pride wasn't at stake. The exact opposite was the case for the thwn Soviets, now the Russian federation.
The two cases are not truly comparable. Let me explain.
There is nothing wrong with the Kuznetsov's design or structure - the problem is the supportive infrastructure and the consequences of not having it. It's systems, such as the engines, generators and water desalination plants have been abused due to the lack of said supportive infrastructure. And to finish off about the Kuznetsov, India and China both operate Kuznetsov-class ships and they have no major problems, why? Because they had infrastructure capable of servicing such large ships beforehand.
The USA has the opposite problem. It's supportive infrastructure is second to none, but it's ships have design and structural flaws. Furthermore, the USA has had structural problems with it's ships for decades now and with multiple classes of ships.
Finally, we are comparing a ship from the 1980's to modern ships made from the 2010's onwards. What I am trying to say is - the USA needs to abandon these dysfunctional failures of ships and design and build new ones that actually work.
Russia hardly uses them lol
Aluminum will always crack with repeated stress. The biggest snafu is designing the ships in a way not anticipating having to do frequent fatigue repairs and making such repairs difficult to do. Aluminum works on aircraft because you can reasonable predict the load patterns and cycles and know when you need to replace things or retire the aircraft. Ships have the randomness of the waves to deal with which adds in so many variables that it's impossible to predict. Magnesium and zinc both are metals that don't fatigue but react rather quickly with salt water in galvanic corrosion and titanium is another HCP material which doesn't fatigue but is much more expensive and difficult to weld and work with.
This leaves the good old Body Centric Cubed crystalline materials of iron, moly, chromium, vanadium that interestingly enough all alloy together into something we call steel very nicely which have a defined endurance limit. There were good reasons for the Independence design to be built from all aluminum. From fuel savings, to being non-magnetic. But thrashing through the ocean at 40 knots or more it should have been known they would suffer from constant fatigue cracks considering how long Austal has been using aluminum and the long history of it.
I have an idea for multipurpose amphibious assault ships with modular runways. Two ships joined together would have a length of 475 meters and could be as resistant to waves as a skyscraper. Shock absorbers can be used, which make it flexible and are used in the columns of skyscrapers. Thus, aircraft carrier costs are reduced by 10 times.
I feel like the LCS was designed and built by people who truly thought it would never be used in combat
...or in waves?
I love the LCS's , I hope this can be fixed. Independence class is my favorite!
They were literally built as they were the lowest possible cost to keep the shipbuilding infrastructure running. They aren't even meant to be good combat ships.
Pretty sure they were essentially a scam by the military industrial complex
@@aniquinstark4347 I dont think they're a scam per se, but it's possible that it's just money that Congress gave back to its supporters
@@Definitely-nothunter It is a scam. Even if it wasn't, it's much cheaper in the long run to make something right the first time and not have to basically completely rebuild it every couple years, On top of high maintenance and greatly reduced performance. This is true no matter what product you look at. You could get $15 shoes at walmart, but you'll be back in a couple weeks for a new pair. Or you could get a high quality pair for $150 that will last you years.
High-speed aluminium ships in rough salt water, cracking? Gasp.
What a surprise???? aluminum and salt water corrosion???? NOT
They should get tips from the Unlimited Hydroplane guys. They keep their stuff together at 200mph. Right Miss Madison?
There were ships at sea for Hundreds of years, Made of Wood.
So the older ships can go faster and can operate in bad conditions but the new one's can't?
Why is this becoming so common?
Cost. The dollar "bought more" in the 70s and 80s. As cost goes up, quality goes down due to the cutting of corners.
@@swaghauler8334 that is pretty deep ser.
@@tacticalhandyman710 The sad thing is that it applies everywhere in our economy. I remember when older appliances used to last for 20 years. Try getting more than 5 years out of a modern washer or dryer now. Older roofing materials would last 50+ years. Today, if you get 20 years out of a new roof, you are close to needing a replacement.
I guess it's just the way of the world. Some Roman guy probably groused about how his older chariot lasted 10 years and the new one only five.
@@swaghauler8334 now products are not really made to last, in contrary to the older products
@@swaghauler8334 It's called planned obsolescence, Companies realized if they made lower-quality appliances then they could save money and then in a few years get your money AGAIN when it tears up, I tried to tell my family not to get rid of our old stove from 1993 that needed a new gasket but they wouldn't listen, They bought a newer GE stove that works good but I give it 3-5 years max.
US Navy: "OK all we want is a ship that is fast and modular."
*Defense contractors hand over ships*
US Navy: "This is neither fast, nor modular WTF?"
Defense Contractors: "We tried and that's what really matters. Also all contracts are cost reimbursable, so it's no our problem."
I thought it was more like:
US Navy: "OK all we want is a ship that is fast and modular."
Defense contractors hand over ships
/cracks develop/
Defense Contractors: "You didn't say they needed stay in one piece."
They are always in Atlantic dry dock. I work there. No more stress cracks as any other ship made in the past 15-20 yrs.
The "cost plus reimbursable" is probably the worst contracting move possible.....puts ALL RISK on the Navy. (On us Taxpayers, to put a finer point on it)
The LCS was a result of extreme forward thinking in what the Navy could achieve in the 2000s. Many of those laser and railgun concepts these ships were designed to support are now abandoned developments. Futurism is great but you have to do the basic research before you build infrastructure on nonexistent technology.
No, it was exactly the reverse. The Navy kept piling on requirements.
Sharp transitions, straight lines and flat surfaces don't withstand well the repetitive, dynamic stresses put on a sea vessel. This ship design flies in the face of that and is suffering the predictable consequences. It's hard to believe this obvious outcome wasn't realized in the testing/development stage.
It's perfectly fine. Ships have had angled structures for decades. The LCS's are just a bit of a mess.
@randomguy9777 I understand that and I am no expert but I think they got it wrong obviously. thanks
@@gabrielpalileo3294 Yes I understand and agree. I stand by my premise though. They could've overcome these basic inequities but they failed in this instance obviously. Again just my opinion. thanks
@randomguy9777 The question is, why would this tpe of ship need to reduce radar cross section? Isn´t it supposed to operate only inside US national borders?
Yes, and lack of metallurgical understanding.
I feel that navies in general should use Toyota type construction methods and materials: reliable time tested hull materials and propulsion. Built one of a new kind and test it for at least two years before committing to a large order.
It might sound impractical compared with present procurement doctrine (to spread out the cost of R&D on a large order) but it seems the right alternative based on recent experiences. The Zumwalt makes this point more evident. It's just a point of view of the large costs involved in shipbuilding and commissioning.
5:33 HEY! We take those ferries all the time to get to the Gulf islands or Vancouver island and the Sunshine coast, it's like part of the highway system except you have to pay $100 to take your car. They have flat bottoms and where they operate in the Straight of Georgia, it can get pretty rough, sometimes they would slam down pretty hard, but always felt so safe. Theyre good ships those ferries.
Yes, I have been on them too, multiple time :-)
They don't let you smoke anywhere and they don't have wifi anymore. Now I have to vape and use my mobile data for pornhub.
The US Navy needs buy as many of those ferries to replace our cracking Littorals! 😃
@@theduplicator3270 Is that on the Littoral or ferrys ?😉
Yes but the Ferries are a Canadian civilian design not a US Navy one.
U.S. NAVY: This is the US NAVY, pretty please slow down so we can board you.
Pirates: YARR
ROTFLMAO... 😂
The pirates: 10 HP outboard motor.
this jarhead wouldn't know the difference, lol
*I didn't knew that the drugs problem in the US Navy was that bad*
While I can't say anything for the Navy, the Coast Guard Cutter I was in ran rampid with them lol
It wasn't just riveting causing it, the key factor was the square shaped windows, which you have never seen on the side of another jet airliner since. The corners concentrate the stress fracture leading to tearing/failure.
Me when I didn't see the thumbnail: "the ships are doing crack?!!"
Lol
I’m a welder. I work for a company that builds aluminum LNG heat exchangers. We always X-ray the structural and pressure vessel welds. Not only that but we also dye penetrant test our welds. If there are any issues we remove the metal and re-weld it.
The US Navy has really been giving the Air Force some good competition in wasting mountains of money on useless shit.
Lockheed Martin, boeing and Raytheon are price gouging garbage products
whats the Air force wasting money on?
Don't blame the navy for this. The navy didn't want these ships after they failed trials. Congress forced these ships on the navy.
@@isafatcat Depending on who you ask, either the F-35s, the B-1s, the Space Force, their "chair force" living conditions...
Probably anything except the A-10 and the B-52
@@isafatcat the f35... Amongst other things.
Independence class LCS' dont entirely make sense to me, I've heard people say that they're stealth ships because of that very angulated body, even though their radar cross section is about the same as any other Naval vessel, other than to modernize the Navy (which makes sense) but man, you'd think after this much effort and continued failure the Navy would just cut their losses on a warship that's built not really to do Naval combat things but instead it's meant to do Coast Guard things.
again, fair enough everyone with a coastal border should probably be at least semi regularly patrolling the highest risk parts of that border, you'd think that this would have been another R&D program that never found success and yet LCS' are around.
To be fair, they are cutting their losses.
Could they transfer these ships to coast guard?
Maybe the best way to deal with those pirates operating out of Somalia would be to give them these ships.
Yeah they're decommissioning all of them by next year I think. Navy shipbuilding really needs to get their act together...the whole Zumwalt thing, and now this 🤦♂️. Fortunately we do at least have 3 working Zums, and if they pull off the planned stripping of the guns in place of new launch cells filled with hypersonics, she might actually save some face and be a formidable missle destroyer. Still though, come on Navy...
@@adityapatil325 The USCG doesn't want them. They're already in the process of replacing 3 of their most common ship classes with newer classes and they can already push 40 knots without breaking apart.
Think of it this way: If the Navy can't afford to fix them how is the Coast Guard going to afford it?
this is a very frustrating ship to work with. seems like nothing ever goes well for both LCS
I predict that they will have illustrious careers on the Great Lakes protecting us from Canada.
I was stationed on a Coast Guard Cutter, WHEC 716 Dallas, all aluminum constructed, it fractured many times, in hurricanes or 20 foot seas, we basically home ported at the CG yard in Curtis Bay, MD, the ship was launched in 1968, the structure problems began in 1975, aft berthing would have 6-12 inches of sea water during hurricanes and tropical stroms
I remember the Pegasus-class hydrofoil gunboats, based in Key West, were taken out of service from hull cracks caused by the foils hitting whales. One has it’s stern nearly broken off. C’mon Navy, get your act together!
At least that sounds reasonable that hitting a whale would do some damage.
I mean... they hit a whale. Not really the hull's fault for that...
Stop steering toward whales!
That's understandable. These are cracking apart because of contact with waves.
Thats’s not true about just finding out about the cracks ……. We’ve known several ships have been cracking for years because of the type of aluminum mix they used ….I remember 2018/19 hearing about the issues
You are correct. We should have been clearer. The restrictions that were imposed as a result of the cracks (and the overall extent of the problem) wasn't known until recently.
This is stated in the video. And it's not just "the type of aluminum mix they used" it's any aluminum period. There is no form of aluminum that is okay to use under constant stress, as it doesn't rebound from that stress. It rips on a microscopic level no matter how little stress is applied to it. And until reforged, those cracks never go away. Try bending a can until its dented then work out that dent, it will still be very weak in the creases no matter how perfectly reshaped it looks.
It's not the alloy, its the design.
@@camojoe83 No, as I said it is the properties that aluminum has period. Maybe it's a bad design as well, but aluminum is not a good material for any level of stress.
@@thesmellofbacon7595 I just can't see 1 of these things taking a missile hit and being able to make it home
...what navy needs are disposable (one time operation) ships. Just look at the benefits:
no cracks - check
no maintenance - check
customized depending on a mission - check
up to date tech - check
perpetual procurement - check
money wasted - check
...you can thank me later...:)
that new ship smell - check
Of course these things need to be cheap, which means they have to be relatively small. Of course that limits it’s range, so it needs to be launched from some sort of mothership or dropped from aircraft. Then you need to put a weapon on it, and a big pile of explosives sounds like it should be able to sink a ship.
Finally it needs a name, we can call it the: Tactically Ordered Rapid Peculiar Extra Devastating Object. Or TORPEDO
@@Sir_Budginton ...cheaping out on military tech never pays off. It needs to be cutting edge tech with at least a triple redundancy for guaranteed effectiveness and at lest one major flaw so it can be made in bulk.
Effect of the weapon should be devastating both for enemy and american military budget...
A disposable boat? 🤷 Ok, guy, let me know when you're drafting plans. 👍
The Navy did use PT boats to launch torpedoes in WW2. Pretty much what you're saying.
Thank you for the metric conversion graphics, much appreciated.
This information is very timely. You're getting better and better.
In the 1970's there was a controversy with a new group of small cargo trucks built by Grumman out of aluminum. The problem there was cracks also. The trucks tended to get cracks in the back door frame due to sideways loads that happened from the poor trucks running through potholes that were not anticipated. Grumman was new to the truck business and lost millions in required warranty repairs to the trucks.
"-now has a crack problem herself." Give that writer a pay raise.
Its pretty remarkable how several ships can be completely built, and several more partially, only to find out the hull has a major design flaw and effectively is useless for the jobs its designed to do.
corruption. they don't care as long as their buddies get rich
Clearly, you've never dealt with the USN before. Expect the next "failed" design shortly, it's their specialty.
Love your videos, keep it up :)
I don't know what think tank told them aluminum was good for a ship but as you can see all aluminum is in trouble when in salt water. electrolysis is one thing but fatigue is a complete killer for the material and I think the navy has figured it out and is just trying to save face with there pride and joy or what was supposed to be there pride and joy
I think they were heavily lobbied by the aluminum manufacturers. When the damage was done the Navy demanded the production of the LCS to stop in addition to every other ship using it as a superstructure and they tried to change them to steel or something. The aluminum producers hated that and said that if they did, they will sue the Navy. The producers argued that it was not the aluminum that caused it, but tests seems to say otherwise.
The other issue was what these LCS models were going to be used for... mine hunting. Low-magnetic (degaussed) steel is EXPENSIVE and HEAVY. The ship wouldn't have the speed the Navy required nor immunity to older mines IF they had used steel. The irony I see is that neither mine hunting nor littoral operations require a high degree of speed, so that speed requirement was a waste of resources for a mine hunter.
@@swaghauler8334 This is completely true.
The report mentions galvanic corrosion at one point. This occurs when a potential difference typically in the tens of millivolts is set up across two dissimilar metals (assume aluminium and zinc on galvanised steel) separated by an electrolyte such as sea brine. This has been described as the aluminium "fizzing away" in cruise ships with steel hulls an aluminium superstructure. I can only assume that part of the problem here is the use of dissimilar metals in sea water not simply the engineering properties of welded aluminium. The tell tale signs of galvanic corrosion are visible corrosion a p.d. (voltage across the metals) and the evolution of hydrogen gas !
Nice, this guy told "rounded windows" as opposed to "circular ones".
Good job keeping the details man
Airplane windows are clearly not circular. Most are rounded rectangles, like he said. I believe a few are of an extended-circle shape, but I've only flown on Boeing planes and they do the rounded rectangle.
@@AlexandarHullRichter they're clearly not circular
@@AlexandarHullRichter Actually, windows in whatever shape, are such weak point in any design, that the airlines are going to utilize real-time TV screens in their place. Better safe than sorry?
This is the best RUclips channel in history
This title had me dying for 5 minutes straight 😂😭🤣
With regards to the liberty ships, in order to manufacture them in a matter of weeks, all the metals panels of the ships hull had to be welded instead of riveted.
So what had was, once a crack started to form from example shell impact, the hull would start to crack and keep on cracking until the ship was cracked in two. If a shell had damaged a panel on a riveted ship, only the panels around the impact would get cracked/destroyed, but the crack would propagate through the rivets through the rest of the ship
You'd think that with all the known issues with cracking in aluminum superstructures that it should have been obvious that building an entire class of ships out of this same material should never have been considered much less implemented. This should be even more of a no-no given that in the littoral waters where wave action would be even more pronounced and the possibility of encountering small boats turned ad-hoc military craft that if not neutralized quickly could inflict a fair bit of damage in short order. Since the USN has previous experience in how fast and complete aluminum can weaken and collapse, as was seen aboard the USS Belknap, it makes no sense to make an entire ship out of this same material. The loss of some speed would be a fair tradeoff to make to have a hull made out of steel.
Aluminum is used to reduce the weight of the ship and increase it's speed. Althrough you might as well just build them out of wood or plastic.
I'm betting some pockets were lined on both sides of the uniform.
It’s so stupid to build a ship out of aluminum that can not take any flexing and lack of strength from and incoming fire it would melt if on fire, they should of built them out of magnesium and would burn so hot and completely burn to nothing and at the bottom of the ocean it would still until there was nothing. And we pay these engineers big money but if they don’t have common sense they would build a hole in bottom !
You're completely missing the benefit of aluminum warships being easier to crush and recycle, as we now have to do with these. 😂
There is a MASSIVE amount of vessels made of aluminum before these vessels. They are just fine, in fact they are tougher and faster than their steel counterparts.
The “almost 4 and a half times larger” animation’s sound was simply satisfying
We put those “pops” in just for you!!
so from what I'm seeing and I'm going to say now I'm no physics expert but judging by the fact if they come across rough water bow on they can stress mych more likely, my guess is this isn't due to the aluminum hull but the actual tri hull structure itself. the complex design of the hull literally has a massive problem where a giant bow is connected to the side hulls with a convex plate armor. every time this thing hits waves that push up on the bow you have a few seconds where the weight of the ship is hitting a wave at speeds where the waves are hitting super hard and the bow is taking that stress and carrying it to those convex plates where stress fracturing is likely as the bow wants to go up and follow the waves for a few seconds and the convex plates are going nope you stay still. this repeated stressing is whats likely causing the stress cracks to appear. if this was scaled down in the front by 30 feet it might have reduced the stresses its recieving but only minorly. if you look at smaller boats with tri hull designs they don't have massive bow structures that are more than 30% of the length of the ship. likely earlier boat designers knew if you did there'd be heavy stressing of the connection between the central hull and side hulls so they never upscaled them to this size.
"Now has a problem with crack itself" good one.
I’m currently working in Mobile Alabama, in the Austal slip dredging where they are building and repairing these. One actually left yesterday they was supposed to be repaired
No big deal now we just need some Sci fi weather control satellite to fix the problem. Wow I think I may be a future politician.
Thanks for shouting out Sub Brief, Aaron does a great analysis of all naval combat related matters, especially submarines.
ALUMINIUM will always fatigue over time, unlike titanium or steel which require a given stress load. Aluminum is lite and stiff, but comes with a cost. Same thing happened to my aluminum bike frame, but not to my titanium or carbon fiber bike frames.
90 % of the bike frames sold in western countries are aluminum bike frames. They can crack, but only few does. My aluminum E bike frame has run now for 22k km, it's used to transport heavy stuff sometimes but it's still fine, in this case they didn't make the material extra thin to squeeze out the last gram for weight saving.
Carbon fiber has a completely different fatigue characteristic, it can delaminate over time, and it don't bend - it stays flexible to the point where it snaps completely. Contrary to metal however carbon fiber is sensitive when it comes to side impacts, since it's a fiber material with the most strength in fiber direction.
Concorde had a carbon fiber rudder, there was one case where a Concorde lost half of its rudder because of undiscovered delamination.
8:14 - "You don't have to wait for seamen to fall through cracks before cleaning things up" 💀
"Now has a crack problem herself" 🤣🤣🤣
That cracked me up.
"Extreme puke"; LMAO... A well done synopsis for non-engineers without getting too technical (coming from an engineer).
This ship comes to shore, a part of it is gone:
"So how did this happen?"
"You know about jetski racing right?"
Tis makes me think of an aluminum jet boat I bought from an oyster farm on the coast for dirt cheap. The bow was so beat up it had patches welded up several layers thick. Is that what these ships will look like in 20 years?
"you dont have to wait till seamen fall through a crack to clean it up"
I got a peek at the structure ,my opinion it does lack some organic features like honeycomb .
The manufacturer of these aluminum boats are the biggest prima donnas I have ever met yours truly Denton Shipyard Gerard Meehan
The military industrial complex is not a role model of competition. In fact, outside of competing to buy the most government favor, no industrial concerns that rely on government funding for the bulk of their revenue are competitive at all with private sector manufacturers that must innovate to survive.
Interesting fact about steel hulled ships with aluminum superstructures. They use implosion welding to join the steel and aluminum. The metal comes in strips a few inches wide by two or so thick that are aluminum on one side, steel on the other. Theres a cool pattern in the middle where the sheets of metal were bonded together using explosives. Everything from the main deck up is sitting on those strips. Thats how you make a steel hulled ship with an aluminum superstructure. I worked for a few shipyards in my late teens early twenties. I picked up the metal from a supplier and was told absolutely dont let anything happen to those strips, they're expensive. Which immediately made me wonder if I was allowed to let something happen to all the other stuff I picked up. Turns out no, no i was supposed to protect that too. Stupid job.😁
Makes me wanna be late on taxes
Taxation is theft.
Ilove the humor 😂
" The ship that was made to intercept drugs has its own crack problem itself 😂😂"
I always wanted to be a failure investigator, which consequently led me into taking an interest in metallurgy and materials engineering. Shit is awesome when it breaks, because people like me can go full autistic into root cause analysis and mitigations.
How many of those analysis boil down to shouting at the braindead engineer who thought using a material without an endurance limit on an area with cyclic loading was a good idea?
Because I hope not to become that kind of engineer.
USS Oliver Hazard Perry nicknamed, "Oh help me Please." Crewmember 1998-1999
I bet those ship class comes with some of the auto dealerships 5 years limited warranty. So wasteful, why keep making those if they not gonna last?
I wouldn't mind getting my hand on a stripped out freedom class ship. Butch on the outside, yacht on the inside
who actually designed the LCS? I feel like they didn't plan for them to be used except in perfect non combat conditions
that pun in the stark CRACKED me up xD ++
Those ship looks cool though.
A ship of this class I see in real life. And this is the only American ship I see in real life.
🥇
In Sweden, I think it was so, they use a special carbon fiber tape on concrete bridges underneath the structural beams as reinforcement to extend their life.
It is incredibly strong stuff.
I suspect if they pre-taped vulnerable parts of the ship with this stuff it would significantly extend the ships service life. It could also be used in the event of cracks starting to form at sea.
Yeah ...built lots of ships have you?
@@edwardschmitt5710 A good idea is a good idea no matter where it comes from.
It is better to try than not bother isn't it? Especially if it could save lives.
That tape can stop a bridge collapsing including the weight of many vehicles such of cars, trucks and buses, it would rather likely be able to stop the crack entirely from forming and certainly has the strength to stop it spreading and coming apart entirely.
Are you qualified to say I am wrong ?
@@OniMetsuki I build boats as a hobby. Behind me out of the window is an aluminum boat I am restoring. I have also built with fiberglass. Now whether an idea is good or not, generally speaking, would center around all the facts. In this case it would be the properties of the two materials. No one, and I mean NO ONE sandwiches ANYTHING between two metals building boats. Now lamination does occur with non metallic things in boat building particularly with polyester fiberglass resin. Your example is they put carbon fiber UNDER bridge beams. Entire boats are made of carbon fiber, particularly race boats. Your comment just races between A and Z. There is a whole alphabet in between (a science called "structural engineering" and I know there is a lot I don't know about that). Even in my little aluminum boat I cannot see where you would add "carbon fiber tape" in between the seems without weakening it. Like materials are universally used when building boats because of the stresses and loads unique to things on the ocean. There is also the expansion and contraction of material due to temperature fluctuations. Not a big deal on a bridge but.....well I really could go on and on here.....but suffice to say, NO. Even allowing if it COULD work, do you know how much that stuff costs? I know I could not afford it in the 16' boat I built. There is a reason race boats cost millions.....just "adding" a stronger material makes stuff stronger"???????? "Couldn't they just make the huge boat out of titanium"????? There I fixed the Navy's issue from my keyboard as well.
I have no doubt who's paying for this 💩.
Huhu. The right way to show off the 1M subscribers plack. I love your videos man! 😊👍
Lol any welder could of told them this was going too happen (in fact I guarantee the builders did but the office staff didn't listen to the guys that actually do the work).
An to all the people that buy Ford truck with "military grade" aluminum this Is what you get to look forward too.
You would point that out. Ford trucks, built Ford tough.
@@ericvardek4108 Ford truck are great but only for the first 5 years, but that has always been true they have a tendency to fall apart after that.
@@smokeshow1984 what about Chevy?
@@Joshua_N-A chevy/gm doesn't have aluminum frame's or body's.
One notable mention: The T2 class, basically the same thing as Liberty ships and Victory ships, but tankers, had a track record of breaking in half, why? Cuz, well, the welding and the speed at which the ship was built, didn't go over well. S.S Pendleton, and S.S Fort Mercer, sank off cape cod in 1952, coincidentally, both were near each other when they sank-
China: Definition of "made in usa"
It is a shame, I hope they get the issues sorted out because it is an awesome looking ship!
They should have named this ship class "hunter"....you know....Crack problem? Eh? Eh? Anyone?.....I'll see myself out.
other issues with LCS.
-Armament: The LCS is the same size as a Fletcher class destroyer of World War II, but that ship had far more weaponry including 5 inch guns, torpedoes and anti-aircraft guns.
One of the LCS missions is Anti Sub Warfare, but it has no ASW weaponry. Yes, it would have a helicopter, but what if the helicopter is broke down or off on a ferry mission.
Who thought up this maximum speed of 40-50 knots? This isn't a cigarette boat for teenagers. Endurance is more important than speed...big engines and a heavy frame make a coastal ship far too big. All other modern coastal ships around the world are half its size. Twice the size means twice the target and twice the cost, all this for high speed? The LCS is the size of modern frigates and bigger than destroyers of World War II, yet has the armament of a patrol boat in order to accommodate the mysterious ultra high-speed requirement.
It looks cool. And obviously, that‘s all that matters nowadays… 😁
About the speed thing. Faster = safer.
All the better to dodge in-coming swarms of Chinese hyper-sonic ASMs, right?
@@ericvardek4108 Constraints in current ship design technology make this desired combination of design characteristics in small ships difficult to realize at any cost. Speed, displacement, and significant wave height all result in considerable increases in fuel consumption, and as a result, severely limit LCS endurance and weaponry. A speed of 35 knots is not needed, not for mine hunting, not for patrolling since it burns too much fuel, and not for anti-submarine warfare. Ten knots makes little difference trying to avoid anti-ship missiles or aircraft. It would only make a difference while pursuing small boats, but then it has a helicopter. Finally, corvettes operate in unfamiliar shallow waters with reefs, sandbars, and underwater rocks, so going fast is unwise.
@@spikedpsycho2383 So, bad idea all around. Got it.
I guess those Independence class vessels.... Weren't what they were cracked up to be
I like how you snapped that fork! Skill bro 😎
Which shipyard/firm built these ships?
Who did the welds?
Who inspected the welds?
Who signed off on them?
Builds a boat that costs more than an entire neighborhood to combat pirates
Sub Brief is a great channel, deffo worth checking out
Sub brief lost me when he announced his disdain and disrespected San Diego firefighters in the navy fire on the Bon Homme Richard. He said some real nasty things about our Great Fire Fighters. Sub Brief is full of crap, ignore that jerk.
How to defeat the US navy? Just try and get them to meet you near a storm front. No ammo required either. I guess the trade off for speed versus usability is really clear here. Maybe steel would be a better material at least for the hull. Superstructures can tear up a bit and be fixed with gum. Hulls,.. not so.
Who thinks this ship should be renamed the Hunter Biden?
USS Hunter Biden and USS Brandon Brown!
Kinetic energy increases as the square of the velocity. Ship flex is measurable so you can stress the ship in various ways or test models, then measure the flex. This flex can be calibrated against the design software. The properties of materials used should be well known. It appears that Austal has a crummy engineering department, or management is interfering with them, and the Navy is incompetent to oversee the process.
Are you reading comments?
Can i request something
What country is the most war crimes and what punishment they get after the war is it the japan ?
I don't know!
@@NotWhatYouThink 🤔 i believe its Japan because they dont have army's
@@arnolfoabetriabucio9244 they spent 54 billions last year on their army....and even so japan war crimes and multuple genocide in ww2, the country with the most war crimes is the us
Russia, china, Japan, Germany are top 4.
@@LOVEisTHEultimateLAW 🤔 maybe because they using flame thrower
A monohull ship can roll with the punches... and absorb the sea forces...while a trimaran sits flatter and its 3 hulls must take the seas' force
From what I know and have heard earlier weld cracking had a lot to-do with HYDROGEN EMBRITTALMENT, 6018, 7018, 8018 etc. steel welding electrodes also called "Lo Hi electrodes" short for "Low Hydrogen" that were NOT heated in a special "rod oven", at hi temperature s for a specific length of time and use within a short time, would absorbe moisture.
That translated into "weld bead cracking",
The humour leading up to the broken fork, it’s not what I thought.
Aluminum and salt water; what could possibly go wrong?
Say No to crack.
I was a Navy welder. All ships crack. What really matters is who they get to repair them. I was stationed with some real booger eaters that couldn't caulk a bathtub.
FLEXSEAL. Solves all problems.
AL structures crack for the same reason a 4130 tube steel frame cracks after ANY form of electric welding - localized heat treatment from the welding process.
Aluminium performs badly in a maritime environment. The constant back and forth rocking motion, plus the corrosive seawater causes metal fatigue to develop quickly, from micro cracks to visible cracks. Even a speedboat that is made of aluminum requires frequent maintenance due to this problem.
The LCS looks beautiful in appearance and it's specs looks great on paper. Inspite of this it's hard to imagine why would any navy want to use aluminum for building ships.
Never heard of this on older ships, the liberty ships problem was fixed with a belt of steel where the 2 halves of the ship was welded together. The navy has been run by crooks for tomany years.
Military-industrial complex.
What I learned from bicycle frames : " Alloy is a joy, but steel is real!"😎
Not really related but seeing that BC Ferry footage reminds me of going from Tsawwasen and Swartz Bay.