Chapter 423: “Origin” series engine!
"Can't make it? Even with the blueprints, can't we make it?" Xu Cang found it unbelievable. Research and development is difficult, and copying won't work?
Perhaps it was Xu Cang's incredulous tone that hurt Lin Ming's self-esteem. After all, Xu Cang had even produced a complete set of technical drawings for the three-rotor machine, and he couldn't even copy them. This was indeed a bit outrageous.
But this is the fact, AVIC just cannot replicate it in a short period of time.
"Xu Cang, the complexity of the three-rotor engine is far beyond our imagination. The technical difficulty of the two-rotor engine is close to our limit. The complexity of the three-rotor engine is several times that of the two-rotor. Even if we copy it, it will take five years to make a prototype ."
"Five years?" Xu Cang was very surprised: "Is it a problem with high temperature resistant materials?"
"No, it's mainly a matter of manufacturing process accuracy. Some of the processes are even new to us, such as the air layer heat insulation technology for turbine blades."
"The air layer blocks heat?" Xu Cang actually knew something about this.
The turbine blades in aircraft engines need to withstand extremely high temperatures. Even if high-temperature alloys are used, the heat resistance is often not achieved. At this time, the turbine blades need to be specially treated.
One method is to make the turbine blades hollow. Air flow will escape from the small holes in the turbine blades, thus wrapping the entire turbine blade, achieving a similar effect to heat insulation.
This is a rather ingenious design. How to drill holes on the turbine blades, where to drill the holes, and how to ensure the strength of the blades after drilling. After all, while enduring high temperatures, turbine blades also have to withstand high pressures.
And most importantly, how to ensure that the airflow after drilling can accurately wrap the entire blade?
Every problem needs to be solved by AVIC.
Rolls-Royce did provide a full set of three-rotor related technologies, but that does not mean they will teach all engine-related technologies.
For example, the current AVIC is at the level of primary school students, and aircraft engines are a high-level math problem for undergraduates. Rolls-Royce followed the agreement and wrote down the solution to this problem clearly, but even if there is a solution to a university-level problem, primary school students still can't understand it.
However, Rolls-Royce has no obligation and cannot help AVIC to complete the middle school, high school and university courses. How to improve itself to understand this solution is now the problem that AVIC needs to face.
And the study time given by Lin Ming is... five years.
The gap is so huge, it's really the difference between elementary school and university.
Xu Cang fell silent for a moment. He was not a technical professional and seemed to have taken some things for granted, thinking that everything would be accomplished with a complete set of drawings. Now it seemed that the gap in hard power was still a bit too big.
However, although Xu Cang was a little disappointed, he could still accept it.
Aircraft engines are not the essence of industry promoted by marketing, but the real jewel in the crown.
According to the number of rotors, aircraft engines are divided into single-rotor, dual-rotor and triple-rotor. Today's mainstream aircraft engines are dual-rotor, which is already the pinnacle of human industry. How high is the technical level of the three-rotor?
It is no wonder that Rolls-Royce went bankrupt in its efforts to develop the three-rotor engine RB211. If the British government had not helped, Rolls-Royce would have been out of business by now.
Why is Xu Cang so obsessed with the three-rotor concept? This is related to the operating efficiency of the engine.
As we all know, turbojet engines are powerful, but they burn a lot of oil, like a bottomless pit. Relatively speaking, turbofan engines are much more economical, especially for commercial civil aviation engines.
Due to limitations in materials and technology, the main means of improving engine performance now is to increase the bypass ratio, which in layman's terms means making the outermost fan as large as possible.
However, this raises a very direct problem, that is, at the same rotation speed, as the fan diameter increases, the speed of the blade tip will become faster and faster. After reaching the speed of sound, a tip shock wave will be generated, which will reduce the engine performance.
How can we increase the diameter of the fan without increasing the speed of the blade tip?
Then you can only reduce the fan speed.
However, in the dual-rotor design, the fan, low-pressure compressor and low-pressure turbine are connected by a shaft.
Contrary to the requirement that the fan speed is as low as possible, the low-pressure turbine speed is as fast as possible. Of course, it is a superficial and violent statement that the low-pressure turbine speed is as fast as possible, because it needs to be judged in combination with the engine thrust, and the content is extremely complicated, but most of the time it conforms to this simple statement.
The low-pressure fan and low-pressure turbine on the same shaft have completely opposite speed requirements. Doesn't this become a dead end?
To solve this problem, two solutions were born.
One of them is the three-rotor technology!
Since the low-pressure fan and the low-pressure turbine have different speed requirements, a separate rotor is installed for the low-pressure fan to drive the fan separately.
In this way, the low-pressure fan, low-pressure turbine and high-pressure turbine are independent of each other and can all operate at the most appropriate speed.
At first glance, this is a rather idealistic design.
However, dual-rotor technology is already at a level that many countries can only dream of but cannot even think about, and triple-rotor technology is even more like a pipe dream that cannot be achieved.
Even the two giants, General Motors and Pratt & Whitney, are deterred by the three-rotor technology.
That’s right, the three-rotor technology is so hardcore.
So far, only Russia, which inherited it from the former Soviet Union, and Rolls-Royce of the United Kingdom have three-rotor technology, which is the only rare thing in the world.
It's so rare that even AVIC couldn't understand the answer.
Xu Cang glanced at the jewelry store staff. Perhaps because of his ordinary clothes, the staff thought that Xu Cang was just here to take a look. Compared with the nobles in fancy clothes who were following the explanation, Xu Cang's treatment was indeed a little cold.
However, this is just right, otherwise Xu Cang would have to avoid it.
He paused and said, "What about planetary gear technology? Have you demonstrated it?"
Planetary gears are the technology that Xu Cang had always wanted to get from Pratt & Whitney. Pratt & Whitney thought the three-rotor system was too complicated, so it installed a speed-changing accessory box between the low-pressure fan and the low-pressure turbine, which is somewhat similar to the gearbox in a car, but the process difficulty is not at the same level.
Although Xu Cang had not yet obtained Pratt & Whitney's planetary gear technology, he told Lin Ming about this idea, and Lin Ming asked his subordinates to conduct a special demonstration on it.
If three-rotor technology is not feasible for the time being, planetary gear technology is also an acceptable approach.
As a result, Lin Ming's answer also made Xu Cang extremely disappointed.
"The concept of engine speed change has been around since the 1960s. Installing a speed-changing accessory box between the low-pressure fan and the low-pressure turbine is indeed much simpler than the three-rotor technology. I also believe that Pratt & Whitney already has a very mature technical system, but the key to the problem lies in the accessory gearbox." Lin Ming said quietly, "Even if the transmission efficiency can reach 99%, the dissipation of only 1% of the energy can generate huge heat, thereby damaging the accessory gearbox."
The energy loss during the transmission process and the resulting heat accumulation are unavoidable problems for engine and gearboxes.
There is no way, the engine output power is too large, a slight energy loss will accumulate a lot of heat. In addition, in fact, there is basically no gearbox equipment that can achieve 99% transmission efficiency.
"We learned that in the 1990s, Pratt & Whitney conducted research and development on engine speed change, which was attached to the US ADP project. Later, the US ADP project failed, but Pratt & Whitney continued to invest. In theory, Pratt & Whitney may have matured, but they don't seem to have a good way to deal with the problem of heat accumulation." Lin Ming said: "Perhaps, in order to achieve the results they want, the gearbox must have an extremely precise lubricating oil monitoring system. However, as far as I know, no organization or company actually has such capabilities. Perhaps this is also the core problem that Pratt & Whitney has not been able to make a major breakthrough in speed change engines until now."
"Once the heat accumulation problem cannot be handled, the accessory gearbox will produce slight deformation due to excessive temperature. As long as the gear is deformed, the transmission efficiency of the gear will be reduced, resulting in more energy loss and more heat accumulation, a vicious cycle, and eventually the gearbox will be damaged." Lin Ming continued: "Once the gearbox as a transmission is damaged, the engine will inevitably have high vibration value problems."
Xu Cang's eyelids drooped, his face gloomy: "Yes, the information Pratt & Whitney gave me did reflect that there were many high vibration values during the ground test of PW8000."
The information Pratt & Whitney gave Xu Cang was to let him know the situation of the PW8000 test aircraft in advance. However, the information Pratt & Whitney gave was actually beautified, and the real engine vibration problem was more serious.
It can only be said that AVIC is not completely useless, it still has some strengths. The possible problems of PW8000 can be deduced through theoretical demonstration alone.
"Speed transmission gearbox..." Xu Cang's face looked unhappy. He didn't expect that the three-rotor technology and the planetary gear technology that he had obtained with so much difficulty and layout were both the moon in the well.
One is too complicated and it takes several years to fully understand it. The other is even more thorough, with only theory but no real product can be produced.
Actually, there is one thing Xu Cang hasn't said yet. He originally planned to combine the three-rotor technology with the planetary gear technology, which is actually a bit similar to Rolls-Royce's Ultra Fan technology.
However, even after 20 years, Rolls-Royce's super fan technology has not been successfully commercialized. One of the reasons is that Rolls-Royce did not conduct in-depth research on engine speed change and spent a lot of time to solve the speed change problem.
But even so, twenty years is indeed too long, which shows how difficult it is to integrate the two technologies.
Twenty years later, when super fan technology has not yet been commercialized, the industry still regards this technology as a new revolution in engines.
Although Rolls-Royce already has the concept of super fan and has agreed to share the relevant technology with Xu Cang, Xu Cang is still not optimistic about Rolls-Royce's progress, and he can't wait for more than 20 years.
Therefore, Xu Cang thought of starting the research and development of the super fan in advance by using the two mature technologies of three-rotor and planetary gears.
Xu Cang wanted to grab it with both hands, but he couldn't lift one of them and the other one didn't even exist .
"Xu Cang, what do you say now?" Lin Ming asked.
The gap between the actual situation made Lin Ming himself somewhat lack of confidence.
"What should we do?" Xu Cang said, "The three-rotor technology is difficult, but at least there is hope. Let's focus on the three-rotor technology first. As for the planetary gears... forget it. I don't think it's necessary to pin my hopes on them for the time being."
In fact, at this time, Xu Cang was a little reluctant to participate in Pratt & Whitney 's engine flight test. The key to the problem was not Pratt & Whitney, but the accessory gearbox.
Pratt & Whitney would never succeed in variable speed engines unless the accessory gearbox problem was solved.
However, in Xu Cang's memory, before he was reborn, Pratt & Whitney had solved the problem of the accessory gearbox, and a variable-speed engine was put into commercial use. Among the aircraft that planned to be equipped with this engine was the Japan-developed MRJ aircraft.
However, the abortion of the MRJ aircraft project caused quite a stir. At that time, many people in China still believed that Japan had strong industrial capabilities and that developing its own aircraft should not be a problem. When the MRJ project was first launched, it was also very enthusiastic, but it ended up with a whimper.
It was because of this incident that Xu Cang noticed that Pratt & Whitney had already overcome the technical difficulties of variable-speed transmissions. However, Pratt & Whitney's variable-speed engine had a bad start, and Japan stood Pratt & Whitney up before it even got the big order for MRJ.
The failure of MRJ also embarrassed Pratt & Whitney's variable speed engine project. As for whether this type of engine will show its true strength or just be a useless embroidered pillow, it is unknown, because Xu Cang was reborn soon after.
Even at this moment, Xu Cang still firmly believed that the variable speed engine was the right direction. However, the current situation was a bit awkward. It seemed useless for him to cooperate with Pratt & Whitney. Pratt & Whitney itself could not solve the problem of variable speed gearboxes, and Pratt & Whitney itself was not good at the technical process of variable speed gearboxes.
Xu Cang speculated that some other company must have solved the problem of the engine's transmission gearbox, thus completing the last piece of the Pratt & Whitney planetary gear technology puzzle, which led to the breakthrough in the variable-speed engine.
In all likelihood, Puhui is also waiting for “good-hearted people”!
Xu Cang thought that he was able to maneuver between Pratt & Whitney and take their planetary gear technology into his possession.
In reality, when it comes to the practical manufacturing stage, the Zenith Star of Puhui Theory Technology mainly targets the beggars.
Lin Ming's attitude was much more humble than Xu Cang's. A three-rotor rotation really wiped out the little pride that Lin Ming had, and all he had left was humbly trying to catch up.
"Xu Cang, just researching the three-rotor technology will probably consume all the power of our engine, but it is worth it." Lin Ming said: "Just with this blueprint, you will own 51% of the company's shares. You don't have to pay for anything, whether it is land, building a factory, or providing personnel, we will do it all. The question now is, do you have a preferred factory site?"
To be honest, Lin Ming's generosity made Xu Cang feel a little embarrassed.
Being able to obtain more than half of the shares of an engine company without providing anything except drawings only shows that AVIC has a vision.
As long as the gap in aircraft engines can be filled, this little money is nothing.
The profits generated from the Chinese market alone will be more than this amount in the future.
Moreover, once the three-rotor technology is fully mastered and the finished product is produced, it will be able to become a world-class industry, and export can really be expected.
If you want to make money, make money from foreigners!
"Mr. Lin, the location of the factory is up to you to decide."
Xu Cang did not make any demands, which was actually a concession. Now there is a complete set of drawings for the three-rotor machine, and as long as you invest money in it, you will definitely reap the rewards. Many places are happy to introduce such high-tech enterprises that are destined to blossom and bear fruit.
Not only can it provide a huge amount of tax revenue, but it can also provide a number of high-paying jobs. It may also form a clustering effect and form more high-tech companies around it.
Previously, in order to get Xu Cang to locate the engine maintenance factory in Rongfu, the General Administration made it one of the conditions for Xu Cang to obtain priority rights to Rongfu Airport.
Compared with engine maintenance engineering, the value of an engine research and development company is much higher.
Although Xu Cang is very smart, he is still not as good as Lin Ming in some social relationships. This kind of thing can only be exchanged for the greatest benefits in Lin Ming's hands. He is now a major shareholder of the engine research and development company. If the company is doing well, he will naturally benefit the most.
Lin Ming did not refuse: "Okay, if you trust me, I will do this, and you can just be a hands-off manager. However, there is something you must do. You need to determine the name of this engine, and don't refuse it."
Xu Cang hesitated for a moment, then suddenly said, "Origin! This engine and its derivatives all belong to the Origin series."
