All language subtitles for Impossible Engineering s02e06 Worlds Biggest Cruise Ship.eng

Today, on
"Impossible engineering,"

The Harmony of the seas,

the largest cruise ship
in the world.

The oasis class of ships
is in a class of its own.

Nothing comes even close,
in terms of size.

Topping every ship
that came before it.

Orit took
revolutionary engineering...

To make the impossible possible.

Captions by vitac
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Royal Caribbean's
oasis class cruise ships:

maritime einngeering
at an unprecedented alsce.

Since 2009, they've held
the title as the largest class

of passenger ships
on the planet.

And, today,
a third oasis-class vessel

is under construction:

The biggest one, yet.

Longer, wider, and heavier than
any other that's come before it.

A lot of technology,
engineering, and design

that has been put into this ship
class is quite extraordinary.

It's simply mindboggling.

Nothing like the oasis class
of ships has been built before.

This is in a class of its own.

The complexity of it is really,
really staggering.

Sitting next to her

makes me feel like standing
next to the skyscraper.

When it's finished,

the Harmony of the seas will be
almost 8 times longer

than the statue of Liberty
is high

and 2 times heavier

than the world's largest
aircraft carrier.

Building a ship
this big would be impossible

without some guidance
from the engineers of the past.

Boats have fascinated humans
whee!

For thousands of years.

Thank you.

The ancient Egyptians
built vessels from reeds.

They were perfect
for cruising the nile.

Oh, hello.

But their absorbent nature
meant they didn't last.

Wood!

For centuries,

wood was the boatbuilding
material of choice.

Warfare led to the use
of metals, like iron.

Aah! Aah!

But iron is brittle
and prone to rust.

Oh, man.

A new material
was on the horizon.

Steel.

And it would go on
to revolutionize the world.

In the chamber behind me,

there's about 150 tons
of liquid molten steel.

The temperature is phenomenal.

It's about 1,650° celsius.

Steel is made by mixing iron

with various metals
and elements.

Oh, my god!

The crucial starting point
of the steelmaking process

is to remove the carbon
and the other impurities.

And then, it's being poured
into the ladle

and it'll go to the next stage,

which is to take it
to the converter.

The steel is modified
by adding extra alloys

and blowing in oxygen.

What's going on here is the very
basics of steelmaking

and this wouldn't have
been possible today

without the pioneering work
of one engineer that's known

throughout the world
by all material scientists.

For centuries, steelmaking was

an incredibly difficult
and lengthy process.

That was, until the 1800s,

when inventor Henry Bessemer
came up with a solution.

Traditionally, the wrought iron

was layered with charcoal
and heated over days

and the charcoal
would diffuse into the iron

and that would produce
the steel qualities.

Very complex
and difficult to achieve

and, therefore,
very expensive, historically.

Bessemer developed
a way to mass produce steel.

The Bessemer converter.

It's a huge, vast, cylindrical
chamber, about 6 meters high

and it would've held
25 tons of steel.

The converter's
capacity is impressive,

but its real ingenuity is
in how fast it creates steel.

Bessemer discovered
that pumping air into iron

accelerates combustion,

increasing carbon reduction
and burning off impurities,

resulting in quality steel
in a fraction of the time.

To show oxygen injection

really increases
the combustion process,

I've got a simple
demonstration here.

I've got a tray of charcoal.

With my thermal camera,

I can see the temperature
of these coals at the moment

is around about 450° c,

so, now, what I'm gonna do
is start to blow pure oxygen

onto these coals
and see the effect.

Wow. Look at that.

The impact
is amazingly impressive.

Ah!

So, if I now look
at the temperature,

it's gone up to 1,000° c,
a hugely dramatic increase

in the temperature
of these coals.

So Bessemer had found
a really amazing process

to reduce the carbon in steel.

Mass production
of steel took off.

Its elasticity and strength
made it a hot commodity

for railroad- and shipbuilders.

And, although processes
have become

more sophisticated and complex,

it was thanks
to that engineering genius

of sir Henry Bessemer
and his revolutionary machine

that over 1.5 billion
tons of steel

are now produced annually
right across the globe.

The Harmony of the seas

needs a staggering amount
of steel.

When finished,
the ship will be longer than

5 football fields back-to-back
and weigh over 227,000 tons.

Ssive steel sheets are delivered

to the assembly plant by train.

Automated systems cut the sheets

into thousands
of individual components.

The steel panels,
girders, and smaller components

are welded into modular
sections called blocks.

Individual sections
are joined together,

forming what are called
grand blocks.

There are 90 grand blocks
on the Harmony of the seas.

A custom-built
gantry crane

lifts each grand block
into the drydock.

The 90 blocks come together

ftoorm the world's largest
passenger ship.

But how do

such gargantuan structures
move across the open ocean?

Designing an engine
for the Harmony of the seas

will be impossible,
without some help

from the great engineers
of the past.

The biggest
cruise ship on the planet

is almost complete.

The Harmony of the seas

will be Royal Caribbean's
third oasis-class ship.

It eclipses every ship
that came before it.

Sitting as tall as tower bridge,

it's as long as five jumbo jets

and as wide as a soccer field.

When I really look at her,
I'm amazed, always,

always, every single time,
by the size of the ship.

It's big, but it's beautiful.

It's awesome.

You can definitely call
this ship a small city.

It can house almost 9,000
passengers and crew on board.

It's a fully self-sufficient
island, if you will.

The Harmony of the seas

is a miniature city,
complete with theaters,

restaurants, bars,
and other attractions.

How does such a gargantuan
structure move

across the open ocean?

The engines
are the heart of the ship

and the electrical network
is the veins

to provide the power
forward to the ship.

Without the engine,
a ship is not alive.

Building an engine
powerful enough

for this megaship
would be impossible,

without help from one
of history's great innovators.

The industrial revolution
gave birth

to the steampowered engine.

It increased productivity, but
enormous boilers were needed.

Oh!
Help, please.

To get rid of boilers,
engineers broke the mold,

burning fuel
within a new engine.

Whoo-hoo!

Compressing gasoline and air
and igniting it

with a spark plug
to drive a piston,

the internal combustion engine
was an industrial gamechanger.

But as the 19th century
drew to a close,

an even greater innovation
was just around the corner.

Mechanical engineer
Henrik Birkegaard

has come to Copenhagen,
in Denmark.

A city which owes
a debt of gratitude

to an engineering marvel...

Which was inspired

by a truly remarkable innovator:
Rudolf Diesel.

This is the HC Oersted
power station in Copenhagen.

And, inside,
you'll find a giant version

of Mr. Diesel's
early engine concept,

which changed the face
of the industry globally.

When it first
powered up in 1933,

the diesel-powered HC Oersted

was the largest engine
of its kind.

It's 40 feet tall
and weighs 1,400 tons.

Back in the day,
it could produce

a mindblowing
15 megawatts of power.

It's absolutely huge.

Standing next to this
3-, 4-story-tall engine

is very impressive.

The real power
of this engineering colossus

comes from Rudolph Diesel's
brilliant design,

patented in 1894.

It's very hard to believe
that the inspiration

to this piece of engineering
came from an object

which actually fits
into the palm of your hand.

The internal combustion engine

had already made a huge global
impact by the early 1900s,

but Rudolph Diesel's design
made it even more efficient.

It doesn't need a spark plug,
using only compression

to ignite the fuel, thanks
to a double-acting piston.

This is a fire piston

and this little piece of kit
was what inspired Rudolph Diesel

in his development
of the Diesel engine.

And it works like this.

You have a small cylinder where
you add a bit of cotton wool.

The cotton wool
will work as fuel.

You have a little piston.

When you push down
the piston here,

the air will be compressed,
the temperature will increase,

and it will finally
ignite the cotton wool.

And it goes something like this.

Compressing the air
created heat,

the heat forced the cotton wool
to burn, turning it into energy,

which forced the piston
back up again.

The perpetual motion

within the compression
ignition engine

works almost exactly
the same way.

Air is drawn into the piston

and rapidly compressed,
creating heat.

High-energy diesel fuel is then
added, causing combustion.

This pushes the piston out,

to start the process
all over again.

Unlike spark-ignition engines,

the continual firing
of the diesel-fueled piston

creates superior power
and effiencicy.

This means
that you're able to burn

not only many different fuels,
but also cheaper fuels,

compared to a spark plug,
antique concept.

This ingenious piece
of engineering was supersized,

creating the HC Oersted engine.

Incredibly, it still works,

more than 80 years
after it was first fired up.

We're now about to ask Arthur
to start up the engine,

the engine which was once
the largest one in the world.

The HC Oersted's
8 giant cylinders

throw out more than
22,000 horsepower,

operating at around
75% efficiency,

compared to the 10% achieved
by steam engines.

Basically, what you see here

haven't changed dramatically
in almost 100 years.

Diesel's innovation

transformed
the industrial world.

Its unrivaled power
and fuel efficiency

made a huge impact
on the world of shipping.

The launch of the first
Diesel-powered liner in 1912

transformed the maritime world.

Cleaner and more compact than
its steam-driven predecessors,

its engine was up to 3 times
more efficient, increasing range

and opening up new trade
and travel possibilities.

I ulwod say,
within mechanical engineering,

it's the most important leap.

No doubt of that.

The HC Oersted may
have been a monster, in its day,

but the Harmony of the seas's
engines

are 6 times more powerful.

Fitting these massive
engines inside the ship

is an engineering feat
in its own right.

A team of nautical
designers and engineers

have set themselves
an extraordinary challenge:

Build the largest cruise ship
in the world.

The Harmony of the seas

dwarfs anything
that came before it.

When finished, it will be
the largest passenger ship

on the planet.

The huge vessel is getting
six Wartsila diesel engines,

the largest of which is
almost 43 feet long

and weighs well over 200 tons.

Fitting them into the ship

was an engineering feat
in its own right.

Now, we're in the
main engine room of the ship

anwed are going to test
Diesel number 1, this baby here.

This is one of the most
exciting days of the boat.

Yo, eivel, let's start her up.

Without these
supersized engines,

the Harmony of the seas won't
make it out of the shipyard.

The starting
of the main engine is one

of the main milestones
on the shipbuilding project.

The enormous size
of the Harmony of the seas

is allowing its designers to do
something truly remarkable.

The sh hipas a split
superstructure.

That means there's a vast,
open space in the middle.

Its upper structure
is impressive,

but, for the ship
to be seaworthy,

it has to deliver
beneath the waves, too.

So there are a few factors
that are very important

for the fuel efficiency
on the ship.

And, clearly, the biggest one
is the hull shape.

The hull shape needs to be
extremely well-designed,

so that you have a good,
hydrodynamic shape.

So how do you design
the perfect hull shape

for the largest passenger ship
in the world?

It would be impossible,
had it not been

for an innovative breakthrough
made over 150 years ago.

Dr. Andrew Steele is
in the British seaside town

of torquay,
getting a taste of the power

behind a perfectly
designed ship hull.

This is a phantom 19

offshore circuit-racing-
class power boat

and it's built for one thing:

Speed.

The shape of the hull
has been precisely matched

to the power of the engine
and that means

that this thing can cut
through the water

at incredible speeds,

in excess of
100 kilometers an hour.

This really is
incredibly exciting.

The ability of this boat
to cut through the water

would not be possible
without the pioneering work

of one man here in the
seaside town of torquay.

Over 200 years ago,

engines were transforming
the maritime world,

but boatbuilders still had a lot
to learn about ship design.

For centuries,
shipbuilders had a kind of

one-size-fits-all notion
about ship hulls.

There was one generic shape

that was considered
the most efficient.

But there was no real way
of testing this,

of working out how much drag,
how much resistance,

a hull would encounter
as it moved through the water.

In 1870, engineer William Froude

built a groundbreaking,
hydrodynamic testing facility.

It was here,
at his home in torquay,

that Froude built
the world's first tow tank.

Froude's 250-foot-long
water tank allowed him

to carry out precise tests
at controlled speeds.

He mounted handcrafted models
on a carriage,

then dragged them
through the water

on a steam-driven pulley.

Froude's original tank,
out there in the garden,

is, sadly,
no longer in existence,

but we do have
this lovely swimming pool

and, here, we're gngoi to try

to explain Froude's
revolutionary discovery

and how it changed the world
of shipping forever.

We've got three
different-shaped hulls:

A flatfaced square box,

a slightly streamlined
rubber duck,

and then this sleek speedboat.

After making sure
each object is equally weighted,

Andrew tows the objects
with a rope attached to a scale,

measuring the amount
of hydrodynamic drag.

You can see this isn't slicing
through the water.

It's sort of making
a lot of turbulence.

If you look at the scales,
3, maybe even 4 kilos.

That's a lot of drag,
a lot of restaisnce.

Next up, a slightly
more streamlined rubber duck.

Well, that feels much lighter
and the scales bear that out:

Maybe 1.5, 2 kilos
of force there

and you can see the pool,
much less disturbed.

There are far fewer
of those Eddies.

The duck's just skimming
across the top of the water.

But I still think
we can do better.

Let's try the powerboat.

This is almost effortless,
maybe 600 or 700 grams, tops.

You can see much, much less
disturbance to the water.

The pool's almost still
and, even from this scale model,

you can see why we make boats
in this streamline shape.

The key
to Froude's discovery lies

in a model's wake pattern.

Froud's real Eureka moment
was when he realized

that he could use a lure
to relate the drag

on a scale model of a boat
to one that was full-size.

Froud developed a formula,

now known as the froud number.

That froud number
can then be used

to compare a model ship
to a full-size one.

By making sure they've got
the same froud number,

you can work out how much drag
the larger ship will experience,

work out how big an engine
you need to install,

and it was this discovery
that revolutionized

hydrodynamics and the
shipbuilding industry.

Froud's hydrodynamic
testing facility hosted

over 46,000 experiments.

His work paved the way
for the hundreds

of state-of-the-art tanks
in existence today,

many of which have been
christened with water

from froud's original tank.

Engineers of
the Harmony of the seas

are using huge,
30-foot models

to simulate a variety
of sea conditions.

The result?
A superefficient bow design,

a design that will be
enhanced even further,

using a cutting-edge system
known as air lubrication.

Micro bubbles create
an air stream under the ship.

This cushioning effect
significantly reduces friction

and the amount of power needed
to propel the ship.

Air lubrication will increase

the Harmony of the seas's
efficiency by 5%.

This colossal cruise ship
may be streamlined underwater,

but above, its sheer stature
poses a huge challenge.

It's got a sort of
big wind profile on the ship.

It's almost like driving
a skyscraper at the seas.

We have to be able
to control her.

Engineers will have to look
to the innovators of the past

for the solution.

In a shipyard in France,

the third addition
to the largest class

of cruise ships ever built
is almost ready.

The Harmony of the seas
is a recordbreaker.

Designing a system
that can control

such a huge ship
in unpredictable weather

is a seemingly impossible
challenge.

It's got a sort of
big wind profile on the ship.

It's almost like driving
a skyscraper at the seas.

We have to be able
to control her

to the direct position
what we want her to be in.

Their solution can be found

in an accidental discovery
made nearly 180 years ago.

Naval architect Lucy Collins is
on t ehenglish coast,

on a boat equipped
with an innovation

that dominated shipping
in the 19th century.

The paddle wheel.

Once the steam engine
came along,

the paddle steamer was born

and it was unrivaled
as the main form

of ship propulsion
across rivers and the seas.

By the 1800s,

paddle-driven ships,
like the SS Savannah,

had the ability
to cross the Atlantic.

But it wasn't
an efficient process.

So the paddles are
on the side of the ship

and, as it goes over waves
and, particularly,

in rough weather,
the paddles are gonna start

coming out of the water
on either side

and this is gonna reduce
efficiency and speed.

Paddle steamers
dominated the seas for decades,

but engineers were looking
for a viable alternative.

Their inspiration came
from an ancient invention.

For most of those
early innovators,

the focus of their
attention was this:

The Archimedes screw.

Dating back
to the 3rd century bc,

this crank-operated
contraption was used

to transfer low-lying water
into irrigation ditches.

So we can see,
if we turn the drill...

We start to get water
transferring up the pipe

and then overspilling
at the end of the pipe.

So inventors realized that
they could apply this to a ship.

If you put the screw surface
on the ship,

it can push the ship
through the water.

In 1836,

engineer Francis Smith
patented a revolving screw

that could be used
to power a 6-ton ship.

But Smith accidentally snapped
the 3-foot-long screw

during testing, leading him
to a surprising discovery:

The shorter piece drastically
increased the boat's speed.

It was the precursor
to the modern-day propeller.

Even after his finding,
the Navy believed

that paddle power
was the future.

Adamant about
the advantages of his design,

Smith decided he needed
to prove his doubters wrong.

He decided to pit his
screw-driven SS Rattler ship

against the paddle-driven
SS Alecto

in a tug of war and a race.

Both ships weighed the
same and had identical engines.

Smith's lifelong work was
on the line.

Today, Lucy is recreating
this famous event.

She's taking on
a propeller-powered bike

in her paddle-powered vessel.

So the paddle wheel's
got quite a good acceleration

straight from the start.

But, it seems
like the propeller blade

is just reaching
its full efficiency.

And, unfortunately, the paddle
wheel just can't keep up.

The paddle wheels are slipping

and it seems
like the race is lost.

Smith's screw-driven vessel

blew its paddle-powered
opposition out of the water,

ushering in a new chapter
in propulsion.

That was the start
of the propeller

being the primary means
of propulsion for ships

from then until now,
almost 180 years later.

In order to drive
the largest cruise ship

in the world, the opprellers

on the harmonofy the seas need
to be of epic proportions.

Each of its 3 bronze propellers
are 20 feet wide

and weigh almost 45 tons.

T buthe designers
of this megaship

can't just make it go fast.

They need it to have the ability
to maneuver through small ports.

The Harmony of the seas,

the largest cruise ship
in the world.

Three massive, bronze propellers

move this behemoth
through the open seas

quickly and effiencitly.

But this megaship
can't just go fast.

It has to be able to maneuver
in and out of port.

Their solution lies
with an invention developed

in the 1950s by German
engineer Josef Becker.

He designed something
called the rudderpropeller.

His propeller could both move
and steer the ship.

It was revolutionary
in its design.

The modern incarnation
of Becker's concept

is being installed
on the Harmony of the seas.

It's called a potted
propulsion system.

The three pods
act like airplane propellers,

pulling the ship through
the water, rather than pushing.

Utilizing 5.5-kilowatt
bow thrusters,

they allow the captain's
unparalleled control.

The pods can be turned
in an instant,

getting the vessel
into locations

that were previously
off-limits to megaships.

As the Harmony of the seas's

inaugural voyage draws closer,

making sure the ride
will be comfortable

for all 6,000 passengers
is a top priority.

The clearest issue we have is
that the ship is not stationary.

It moves. It rolls.
It heaves.

There's all kinds of movements
and acceleration on the ship,

which makes it a little bit
more complicated.

How do you keep such
an immense vessestl eady,

in even the roughest seas?

This is a gyroscope.

And, to explain how it works,
we're gonna need one of these.

A motorcycle's wheels do more

than just power and steer it.

A gyroscope works

by conservation of angular
momentum, which means that,

when it's spinning around
very, very quickly,

it doesn't wanna change
the direction of that SPiN,

and this can give some pretty
counterintuitive effects.

These physical
reactions can be extraordinary,

an effect known as ghost riding
sometimes occurs

when a bike crashes
and loses its rider,

but then rights itself
and continues its journey.

This phenomenal sight comes down
to gyroscopic forces

acting on the bike

as it tries to maintain
its original orientation.

So how does it work?
Aah!

Well, I'm gonna try and show you

with this piece
of apparatus here.

What we've got
is an ordinary bike wheel,

but we've filled
the inner tube with concrete,

just to make sure
it's nice and heavy.

So, currently,
this thing isn't spinning,

and that means it hasn't got
any angular momentum.

And that means it's pretty easy
just to make it SPiN around.

It's not very stable.

However, if we get
this electric drill

and get the bike wheel spinning

and as we add more speed
to t dherill,

we're increasing
the angular momentum.

Now, it's moving very fast and,
now, if I give it a whack...

You can see
this thing is stabilized.

And that's why,
in extreme circumstances,

a wheel can refuse to lie down.

It's the stabilizing effect
of a gyroscope

that maritime engineers
are interested in.

If I get it spinning
nice and quickly,

I can just balance
the spinning wheel on my hand.

Gyroscopes
can do this for a ship.

In 1917, American inventor
Elmer Sperry

took advantage
of gyroscopic forces

for the first time
in a large vessel.

He equipped the USS Henderson
with two enormous gyro wheels.

Each wheel weighed 60 tons.

Inside, 10-foot flywheels spun

at an incredible
1,100 revs per minute,

creating huge amounts
of angular momentum

in order to minimize
the ship's roll.

It was a huge engineering
breakthrough.

But his brute force approach
was impractical.

As technology has developed,
so has the use of gyroscopes.

Over the years,
pioneering scientists

and engineers have experimented
with these gyroscopic forces

to the point where, nowadays,
we can fit tiny gyroscopes

on the surface of a computer
chip, like this one.

And they're used everywhere,

from mobile phones to aircraft,
and even ships.

The Harmony of the seas

takes the magic of the gyroscope
into the 21st century.

Instead of using giant,
spinning wheels

like those employed
on the USS Henderson,

the Harmony of the seas uses
a small gyroscope as a sensor,

which controls mechanical
stabilizers via computer.

So, in rough seas,
what we can use to minimize

the roll and the movement
of the ship are stabilizer fins

and they are actually fins
that emerge laterally

from the ship's hull.

This is the location
we are in now.

And what it does:

It's sort of like a wing
that comes out of the ship.

It emerges laterally, like this,

and then it turns
around its axis.

A stabilizer blade is recessed

into each side of the ship.

They're deployed
when seas get rough.

Stabilizer mostly
counteracts the roll,

so, the sideways movement
of the ship.

So if the gyroscope feels
the ship starts moving this way,

it asks the fin to exert force

so that it counteracts
the movement here,

so it tries to always
right the ship.

It's been a century

since the first cruise ship
set sail on the world's oceans.

Now, by drawing on
the innovators of the past...

standing next to this
3-, 4-story-tall engine,

it's very impressive.

Adapting
their ideas, honing them,

and making trailblazing
innovations of their own,

the engineers, designers,
and workers constructing

the Harmony of the seas
are making history.

When first these plans
were thought of,

I'm sure there were
a lot of people who thought

that we were absolutely nuts,
absolutely crazy,

to think of even building
a ship this large,

but, you know, we are not afraid
to think large, think big,

think outside of the box,
and that's what you need.

You need a little bit
crazy thinking, at times,

to really make great things.

They've succeeded
in making the impossible

possible.

When we started this
project, more than 2 years ago,

we had only design on the paper.

But as we now see it,
the dream come true,

I feel really proud
of what we have achieved.

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