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RCL Pool Details


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I have always been curious how pools are designed onboard cruise ships from how the ship stays float with so much water weight onboard to how the ship's piping system is designed. Royal Caribbean Line just revealed its latest pool design onboard Icon of the Seas. Icon of the Seas will have 62% more water surface areas onboard than any other ship at sea, offering at least 7 differing pools. The ship will offer a swim-up bar called Swim and Tonic onboard! This mega-ship will also have the biggest waterpark to be constructed on a cruise ship, Category 6 waterpark. Engineers must have thought long and hard about making this ship a reality! 

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@3Sisters Wow, your first sentence covers a college semester fluid mechanics course. To keep it simple, it's all levitation magic! No? then here's an article that may demystify it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy   If Archimedes principle makes sense, then 'how does a ship float?" all falls into place. So, the more water being held up on deck in a pool, the larger the hull volume is below the ship water line (or the lower the ship sinks into the water).

 Not sure what the question is for piping systems.They're mostly either pressurized or under vacuum (the sucking sound when the toilet is flushed), so everything moves around. PSA - don't sit on the toilet when you flush it! (There's a reason the flush lever is behind the lid, requiring one to get up to flush.) Yikes! enough already!

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@kefthecruiser Based on this statement on buoyancy, the larger ships actually sink deeper into the water. The vessel has to potentially have a different, sleeker (slim) design than the smaller boats. I wonder if the boat's depth has to shift depending on the ship's tonnage. That would make sense to me. The larger ships weigh more, and at the same time have to accommodate more people/things, and the overall weight increases substantially.

I'm sure total weight distribution is super important too. Can you imagine how the ship would potentially shift if all of the cabins and guests were on one 1/3 of either end of the ship? I would imagine either the front or back end would tilt. Based on your engineering knowledge, does this principle have truth?

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@3Sisters I think I’ve opened Pandora’s Box!

What you write is generally true. For instance – "…the boat’s depth has to shift depending on the ship’s tonnage" is true for a ship that is built and does not use ballast tanks to offset changes. For a ship under design, the draft can be selected and length and width changed to get the volume needed. Yes, a deeper draft is more stable. The designers likely iterate around these 3 parameters to get the hull design and stability they need. (Not sure about the ‘sleeker’ point.)

Total weight distribution is key, not just for stability but also hull strength. Yes, with enough weight moved to one end, the ship would tilt. Very doubtful the passengers alone could do this. Not sure how cabins would move around on a built ship….. Back in my days of unloading coal from the holds of ocean going barges, the barge was 20,000 gross tons (empty) and carried 40,000 tons of coal, in 4 holds. There were limits on unloading to control tilt and hull stress. For example, if one simply unloaded all coal from the bow hold, the hull would crack! Truly a career limiting move for the crew, . So, the unloading protocol was followed exactly.

You are a very curious person.

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@kefthecruiser I like your more engineered-focused jargon. clearly, my more basic, everyday lingo doesn't include as many of those concepts, which is why I chose the term "sleeker." In my mind, sleeker is slimmer, a more aerodynamic sort of configuration. From what you are saying, I'm gathering that the cruise ship hull design is selected based on a combination of depth, width, and length that will properly accommodate the amount of volume/density necessary for the ship. 

I'm glad that the weight distribution onboard wouldn't create any sort of extreme tilt. That's some intricate design work. Thanks for the history of coal transport. It was an interesting perspective and a thought-provoking read. 

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I would love to sit in with engineers and just watch and listen to how they come up with these designs. As I've mentioned in other posts, I love the thought process of engineers, I find them fascinating how their mind works. Every little detail is accounted for, and I love the concepts behind that. If I could do my life all over again, then engineering is something I would go for.

Edited by PaulB
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@kefthecruiser Thanks for providing your insight here. Designing and engineering such a masterpiece takes millions of dollars in resources. A cruise ship is such an incredible work of art and it's hard to appreciate all of the time and energy put into the mechanical operations of the ship because it's mostly unseen. 

For those not engineer-minded, here is a very interesting read on the size of a ship engine. https://www.cruisehive.com/how-big-is-a-cruise-ship-engine/74524 This article also covers engine failure, in a very basic, easy-to-read way. 

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