The new propulsion technology can make air and water more silent.
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Propellers have similar problems in air and water.
The new silent propeller technology allows to making of fast and silent aircraft and submarines. The propeller can be closed in the vacuum tube, which isolates the sound. The main problem with propellers in air and water is that if the flap speed turns too high, that causes a situation called "supercavitation". The water starts to boil. And sooner or later the propeller starts to spin in a bubble.
In the air, a very fast spinning propeller will get in a vacuum. Because air has no time to fill the space between propeller flaps. This is why the propeller's maximum effective radial speed of the propeller is about Mach 1. And the aircraft and submarines cannot travel faster than the propeller moves.
The propeller starts to spin in a vacuum where it cannot make thrust. For making thrust the propeller requires something that moves backward. Engineers worked very hard to solve this problem. One solution is the opposite of rotating propellers. In that system, the forward propeller drives air or water to the backward propeller.
Tu-95 "Bear" uses opposite rotating propellers.
There have been developed systems that push water or against the flaps that break the bubble around them. Those systems can be water injected from the sides. And that allows them to spin propellers faster before they get in the vacuum.
In some models, the systems can use so-called active propellers. In those propellers, the pumping system pumps water to tubes that are in the flap. The water will conduct to the holes behind the flap, and in those systems, the water or air that comes from the flap ahead pumps water or air against the following flap. That allows the rotation speed of the propellers.
Tunneled propellers in Seawolf (SSN-21) class submarine.
In future...
Underwater rockets. And high-energy plasma engines.
In history, some inventors suggested that the submarine could use nitroglycerine for thrust. The idea is that water fills the tube. Then small nitroglycerine capsule will detonate in that tube. It forms the pressure effect, that pushes the submarine forward. The problem with nitroglycerine is that it detonates so easily. And that's why there is needed some safer propellant.
The sulfur acid and hydrogen peroxide can used for making thrust. The plasma-laser thrusters can be more effective. If they have a large enough capacity.
The origin of the idea of underwater rockets is in Walther propulsion. In the Walther system, hydrogen peroxide interacts with water. Forming heat and steam that the system conducts to the turbines. The system can also use sulfur acid to make a vapor that can rotate turbines. In some models, the sulfur acid or hydrogen peroxide will conduct to the tube. That is open backward. The system can have a flap at the forward, that lets water come in. Then the system closes the flap and drives sulfur acid or hydrogen peroxide in a tube. That system is called the "pulse pressure system".
It's possible to increase the submarine's speed by using rocket engines. The submarine can create hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis. Then the system can inject water into the combustion chamber for increased thrust. And this thing makes it possible to create supersonic submarines.
"The small laser pulses emitted by the fibers would vaporize seawater and generate plasma, the substance created when gas is heated. In turn, the plasma would expand, creating a detonation wave that would act as an opposite force to the submarine, propelling it forward." (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/chinese-scientists-want-lasers-power-102)
"A large number of high-powered laser beams positioned around the submarine at various angles could produce nearly 70,000 newtons of thrust and would drive it forward at speeds almost as fast as a commercial jet, according to SCMP." (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/chinese-scientists-want-lasers-power-102)
Laser-plasma propulsion.
The new laser systems can make the supersonic submarines possible. The same systems can used to create high-energy plasma engines that allow the craft to operate in air, underwater, and space. In some models, the system can shoot laser rays into the water behind the submarine. Those laser rays cause explosions. If there is a plate behind the submarine that allows the pressure waves to push against that plate.
Maybe the new laser systems cannot push the full-size missile submarines. But they can used to push small miniature submarines and nuclear torpedos.
In conventional laser propulsion lasers warm things like carbon fiber sticks. And then that causes expansion in the reaction chamber.
The idea of laser propulsion is that the laser creates high-energy plasma that pushes aircraft or submarines forward. Chinese researchers developed a system that uses laser rays to give thrust for the submarines. The idea is that the system shoots against the miniature balls, which expands water. The system can theoretically use any kind of material that the laser can boil. So the sand bites are also suitable for that purpose. This technology causes skeptical opinions. But if high-energy plasma jet engines are possible, that system makes it possible to create supersonic submarines.
https://asiatimes.com/2024/04/china-closing-in-on-laser-propelled-fast-stealth-subs/
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-scientists-laser-propulsion-silent-superfast-submarines-flawed-laser-expert-2024-4
https://interestingengineering.com/military/supersonic-submarines-laser-propulsion-china
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/china-s-plan-to-laser-power-supersonic-submarines-not-feasible-expert/ar-AA1nR3Sx
https://m.researching.cn/articles/OJe5f22f467839a111
https://scitechdaily.com/mystery-of-embedded-engine-noise-unraveled-new-research-paves-the-way-for-silent-skies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercavitation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95
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