Under the Principles of Undersea Magnetohydrodynamic Pumps program, PUMP for short, DARPA is developing a silent submarine propulsion system.
The reason why this technology hasn't been used in submarines for over 60 years, except in a couple of experimental surface boats, is twofold. Firstly, the electromagnetic coils must be extremely powerful, and making ones that are light and efficient enough for submarine installation is challenging. Secondly, the electrodes must withstand a lot of wear due to corrosion, hydrolysis, and erosion caused by the interaction between the magnetic fields, electrical current, and saltwater.
In recent years, there have been significant advancements in magnet development. However, there is still room for improvement in finding the right materials for creating electrodes. To address this issue,called "Principles of Undersea Magnetohydrodynamic Pumps" that will utilize multiple approaches to develop a practical military MHD drive.
"The best efficiency demonstrated in a magnetohydrodynamic drive to date was 1992 on the Yamato-1, a 30-m vessel that achieved 6.6 knots with an efficiency of around 30% using a magnetic field strength of approximately 4 Tesla," Susan Swithenbank, PUMP program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, told New Atlas.
“In the last couple of years, the commercial fusion industry has made advances in Rare-Earth Barium Copper Oxide magnets that have demonstrated large-scale magnetic fields as high as 20 Tesla that could potentially yield 90% efficiency in a magnetohydrodynamic drive, which is worth pursuing. Now that the glass ceiling in high magnetic field generation has been broken, PUMP aims to achieve a breakthrough to solve the electrode materials challenge," she added.
"We’re hoping to leverage insights into novel material coatings from the fuel cell and battery industries since they deal with the same bubble generation problem," said Swithenbank. “We’re looking for expertise across all fields to form teams to help us finally realize a militarily relevant scale magnetohydrodynamic drive," she added.
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