I am wondering if boiling water that is trapped inside of a semi-enclosed pipe would be a low-cost method of creating an underwater thruster that would function as a silent marine propulsion system.
Please reference the following conceptual drawing:
This drawing is showing a cross-sectional side view of a conceptual underwater thruster. There would be a copper pipe that would be partially positioned within a metal cylinder and within this metal cylinder there would be an AC induction heating element that would partially surround the closed end of the copper pipe. The other end of the copper pipe would be located outside of the metal cylinder and it would be open-ended. This heating element should create a rising water temperature gradient within the closed end of the copper pipe.
The AC induction heating element would be turned on and would remain on so that it would continually boil the water. This will cause the water pressure (psi) inside the pipe to be higher that the ambient water pressure outside of the pipe/thruster and this imbalance should cause the thruster to move forward as indicated on the drawing. This thruster could be mounted externally to a ship or submarine's hull or it could be installed internally in the stern area of either vessel.
The main premise of this idea is that the boiling water will not be able to exit the copper pipe so there should be continual high water pressure inside the pipe and thus continual thrust. Also, there should always be water inside of the pipe because there should be a continual circulating flow of warm water exiting the copper pipe while colder outside water enters it.
Could boiling water inside a semi-enclosed pipe be a low-cost method for a silent marine propulsion system?
EDIT
Based on the answers and comments I have received to original design above, I have redesigned this 'Boiling Water Thruster', shown in the new drawing below:
I believe this new underwater thruster design should provide silent propulsion for the ship/submarine, although the thrust would be low compared to propeller driven craft.