DARPA is developing a silent submarine drive that uses magnets and electricity to propel a submarine through the water.
Academic, commercial, and military researchers have been working toward realizing a novel form of maritime propulsion since the 1960s. This propulsion system uses magnets and an electric current to silently propel a boat or submarine through the water, rather than a propeller, drive shaft, or seals.
Despite developers’ decades-long success with proof-of-concept demonstrations of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) drive technology, the technology remains inefficient and impractical for large-scale systems due to a number of significant technological obstacles. The primary difficulty has been producing sufficiently strong magnetic fields to allow for high-efficiency pumps. The second problem is the inability to find electrode materials that are resistant to the deterioration brought on by the combination of magnetic fields, electricity, and saltwater. Recent years have seen significant progress made in demonstrating the ability to generate high magnetic fields, but the issue of electrode materials persists.
DARPA has announced a new program called Principles of Undersea Magnetohydrodynamic Pumps (PUMP), which aims to develop new electrode materials for a military-grade MHD drive in order to overcome the materials problem. The program will compile and verify multi-physics modeling and simulation tools for scaling MHD designs, including hydrodynamics, electrochemistry, and magnetics. The program’s objective is to prototype a scalable MHD drive and establish an electrode material system.
The program lasts for 42 months. It will employ a variety of solutions to address these issues in order to develop a functional military MHD drive.