Solving

Solving problems

While we may appear within much of this site to oversimplify some tasks and make the task of knocking up a few large islands seem extremely simple, we do recognize that there are challenges and some problems to overcome.

We have many unknowns, an environment that at times of the year will present a challenge, we will be working with technologies that may be not as fully understood as we had thought, and just keeping everything still may present a problem.

There are some problems we are aware of and perhaps we need to just consider briefly here.

Electrolytic & Galvanic Action In Ferrocement Hulls

Even with ship builders with a lot of experience of this, it is not always easy to forecast. Some add anodes in various places as a matter of course, sometimes this will overcome the problem while other times it will create it. An approach favored by some with more experience, is to start with none and after 6 months or so pull the craft out and look for signs, then adding anodes. This is obviously not as simple in our case.

The action is caused by a battery like condition being established, and is often more effected by large iron ships and contaminated shallow moorings, neither of which most of our islands are likely to experience, however we may have masses of metal or other structures that cause this action so we need to both be aware of it and consider how we are to overcome it. We also have to be aware that solving the problem for one island by adding anodes may create a problem for a nearby island.

Cleaning bottoms etc

While ships have special paint applied and are taken out and have any growth removed, we need to be able to determine if these growths need to be removed and if so how to do it in place. While a ship needs to do this so as to reduce friction through the water, our concern is more likely to do with added weight, however this may be able to be designed in, or corrected by pumping out balancing tanks or removing ballast.

Strength to withstand the waves

It is thought that some large tankers have failed, because the constant stress of flexing the hull up and down by suspending it across two large waves etc has caused metal fatigue to set in and the craft to break up. A ship has to be able to withstand being supported by one or two large waves supporting only a part of the hull and the rest bridging the waves.

Our defenses to this is firstly a sea wall to provide protection from the large waves, and reduce the swell. Second the spiral of islands act as a cluster and protect each other, thirdly in size and strength, our islands will be far larger than any ship so will always be across a number of swells or waves.

We know that the lift produced by a ship or island is equivalent to the water displaced, and that when one side is more into a wave the lift is greater, leveling up the craft in line to the sea at that point. When there are a number of waves or swells different lifts, or forces may be acting on different parts of the structure. The roll effect a ship suffers from, if not stabilized, is caused by the waves, lifting alternate sides as a wave crosses the boat. Conceptually our islands will be large enough to cover a number of waves or swells spreading the load, so we should not have the same problems, however we also have to be aware that a pendulum type of motion is also possible, where stored energy fueled by waves on one side could cause a harmonic type of movement that takes a long time to dissipate. What we are saying is that the design side is very important, and specialist architects/designers will not only have to design nice layouts, but understand all the stresses and harmonics etc.

Movement between islands

In order to bridge from one island to another we have to have bridging points. This presents some difficulty in that there could be different heights and both sideways movement and forward backwards movement. There may also be different movements between one island and another in the ocean due to sway or harmonic rolling, as well as the direct lift or swell of the ocean. This again becomes a design problem to overcome, and one where the design may be best left to the two islands are constructed and characteristics can be best assessed. It is likely that specialists will develop who can put these bridges in quite quickly and overcome bridging problems as they arise. Not all islands will necessarily have bridges.

Methane or whirlpool in the ocean

There are conditions where items that we would expect to float, no longer do. Basically boats sink. This occurs when methane is released, and under some odd conditions like when a severe vortex effect is produced. Gas releases are far more likely near to land where coal and similar can be found, so in the deep ocean it is less of a risk. You also need a large vortex to suck down a very small craft, so a vortex large enough to threaten the kingdom, or an island is extremely unlikely. So why bring it up, firstly to identify another area to consider and secondly and more importantly to consider vortexes we might set up by accident, by having a large mass in the ocean or by turning over waves with a sea wall. Probably a near zero risk, but we have to consider them all.

Mammoth wave

There is as you may be aware some who feel a lump of land is to fall off at some point from an island that will create a swell that will travel across the Atlantic, and convert to a wave, wiping out New York and much of the east coast of the USA.

So will, or could, this wave hit the new floating kingdom. If so what effect would it have?

What could happen, it could break it away from its moorings, the swell of wave could lift the whole lot up and drop it very quickly, which would be unlikely to do any major harm except to bridging points and possibly connectors. If a giant huge wave as such was formed it could role right over our sea walls and wash away any loose items on the islands. However there is no real chance of a wave of this size developing, in open ocean it is far more likely to pass us as a swell that is hardly noticeable and convert to a wave when the depth of water is reduced. (See information on waves to understand this more.)

Some say it will happen at some point, some that it may but is unlikely, some that we and others should be looking at making defensive moves to stop it having this effect, and some that if we just do better modeling and understand better the risks we can design to survive them. Clearly if it did happen, then not only the USA but many islands and costal areas that are around the Atlantic would be severely effected. Hopefully at some point others will investigate this and look at what can be done to cure the problem, or risk, but we also will need to get a better understanding of this risk, and how it would effect us.

Concluding

Hopefully we will show that this offers opportunities, to develop, solve problems, measure and experiment, adding more skills and improving the designs as we progress.

Being realistic we have to accept that some mistakes will be made, as the only way not to make mistakes in to do nothing. However mistakes can be considered as risks and risk analysis done, identify where many of the problems may develop, and making sure that whatever happens there is a solution, and most importantly a safe form of failure should it occur on any structure..

It is without doubt one of the last areas we can all join in exploring, as few of us will ever be able to join in space travel.