Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1240: Saw a Ghost (make up for yesterday's 5k)

You don’t have to aim too high for some things that are too difficult and out of touch with the current situation, but for some things it is very necessary to start.

What Gao Zhendong didn't expect was that other comrades were fine with the rest of what he said, except for one sentence that was very strange to them.

"Lime?" This was a serious matter. Gao Zhendong didn't expect their reaction to be so strong. He thought that it was okay to be lame, as it was not like he couldn't walk and it could be cured.

He has experienced a life where he has almost everything he needs, and even if he does lack something, he believes that he can make up for it to at least a usable level within a certain period of time. So he really can't understand the feelings of his comrades.

"Yes, our cars use diesel engines!" Gao Zhendong did not even bother to comfort his comrades, but said in a firm tone.

After hearing this, the comrades felt relieved. So this is it. This is the real reason. It doesn’t matter if you are lame.

"That's right. One of the main reasons is that we don't have much diesel. It's mainly used for military and agricultural purposes, so there's not much left for ordinary models. Also, diesel engines have high torque but low power, and they're noisy and bumpy. They're not easy to use in the north because they're prone to solidification and wax formation, so they're not suitable for this purpose."

"What if there is a way to increase the power of a diesel engine and reduce its fuel consumption, while at the same time solving problems such as low temperature, bumps and noise to a certain extent?" Gao Zhendong still believed the explanation given by his colleagues in the industry, but he was a little curious. After all, the solutions to some problems can be seen on tank engines.

"But we still don't have diesel, which is the biggest problem," said the director of Beijing Automobile Factory.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "I understand... what a pity... let's put this aside for now." Conditions are limited, and since the overall trend is like this, let's put it aside for now. We can't afford to toss it.

"But there is a technique you can consider. Enter in advance so that you won't be caught off guard and be overtaken by others." Gao Zhendong did not dwell on it, but changed the subject.

"What technology?"

"Engine air intake boost!" said Gao Zhendong.

Compressing the intake volume is equivalent to increasing the intake amount, and the combustion chamber of the same volume can produce greater power.

"Oh? Commissioner Gao is also interested in this? We do have a unit that has studied this thing, but due to various reasons, it cannot be used in passenger cars for the time being." It seems that Commissioner Gao has done in-depth research on engines... This is bullshit, how can he be so confident if he has not done in-depth research?

Eh? Does this mean that he has a lot of ideas in this area and can even solve problems that we can't solve? After all, the 463 engine is something we can't solve, but he solved it.

"Commissioner Gao, can you transfer the tank supercharging technology to ordinary cars?" Due to confidentiality reasons, he didn't know that Gao Zhendong had some ideas about tank engines, but he knew that our 5DL tank used supercharging technology. This thing cannot be copied without the cooperation of the th Ministry of Machinery.

Gao Zhendong did not directly confirm: "I have this idea."

The director of Beijing Automobile Factory could not quite respond to this question, mainly because he did not have in-depth knowledge in this area.

However, the chief engineer of the 11th Ministry of Machine Building was very interested. If this technology could be decentralized, it would not only be a problem for a certain model of car, but would be useful to the entire automotive industry.

"That's great. We have always wanted to put a supercharger on the car, but the problems of size, cost and fuel consumption are very difficult to solve, and there has been no good solution." said the chief engineer.

There are two types of intake boost in automotive engines - mechanical supercharging and turbocharging. The 5DL uses a mechanical supercharger, which has many advantages: significantly more power than naturally aspirated engines, no power lag, linear output, good maintenance and reliability. However, because the engine power needs to be diverted to drive the supercharger, the fuel consumption is not very friendly. It is also complex, bulky and costly.

The 11th Ministry of Machine Building did not want to delegate the mechanical supercharger to lower levels, but it simply could not do so.

Gao Zhendong shook his head and said, "We don't use mechanical superchargers!" Putting a mechanical supercharger on a car is a choice only for those who are really stubborn. In the current environment, the economy alone is enough to kill it, so it's better to have a choice.

New technology? The chief engineer became more interested: "What will drive the supercharger?"

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "Everyone knows that airplanes have jet engines, right?"

The chief engineer was a little puzzled: "I know, but cars can't be powered by jet engines... No, no... You mean, use car exhaust to drive the supercharger?"

He knew nothing about aircraft engines, so naturally he could not use the multi-stage compressor of a jet engine to analogize a supercharger. He only knew that it was unlikely that jet engines would be used in cars. However, as the chief engineer of the 62th Ministry of Machine Building, he was sensitive to technology. Moreover, exhaust gas turbocharging had been used in automobiles since , so it was impossible for him not to have heard of it at all.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, that's what I mean. The exhaust gas discharged by the car carries heat energy and speed. The heat energy is difficult to use with the size of the car engine, but the speed can still be used. We use the turbine to convert the impact energy of the exhaust gas to drive the supercharger. This thing has many disadvantages, but at least two points are very clear - it has higher power than the naturally aspirated engine of the same displacement, and compared with the mechanical supercharger, it uses the energy of the exhaust gas, has lower fuel consumption, and is smaller in size and weight."

In principle, this thing is just a small windmill driving a fan for boosting, so it is not complicated and is small in size.

But the trouble with this thing is not in its structure, but somewhere else.

The chief engineer quickly recalled some of the information he had seen about exhaust gas turbocharging and frowned: "I remember that two years ago, we came across news that turbocharging was beginning to be applied to automobile engines. We have thought about this, but it is difficult..."

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "What's the difficulty?"

"To be honest, we also got some information about turbochargers, and even got a set of real ones through overseas comrades and friends, but we gave up after trying them. It was mainly due to material problems..."

Having said that, the chief engineer suddenly raised his head and looked at Gao Zhendong with surprise.

Where was he sitting? The Third Rolling Mill of the Seventeenth Ministry of Machinery, Third Branch!
Who is in front of me? Comrade Gao Zhendong, a famous materials expert and scientific committee member of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building!

Why did he first come into contact with the 6011th Ministry of Machinery? The battle to provide agricultural machinery materials to the th Ministry of Machinery and the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Commission!

"Commissioner Gao, can you solve the problem of the materials we need?"

Gao Zhendong nodded: "It should be no problem. If you are interested, you can report the materials to me and I will pick them for you. I can give you priority in producing some."

He could find the structure diagram of the turbocharger, but he didn't plan to look for it. First, this was a bit expensive for him, and second, what he found might be a bit too advanced. It was the same turbocharger, but if it was too advanced, it might make his comrades not know how to use it, such as the oil quality problem.

Now that the comrades have brought both the information and the physical objects, the rest of the things will be much easier to handle.

The chief engineer of the 11th Ministry of Machinery didn't quite understand what he said. What did he mean by "selecting" and "prioritizing production"? Did he have a lot of materials that he didn't know how to use? But at least one thing was clear to him, that is, Gao Zhendong promised to solve their material problem.

"That's great! If we can solve the material problem, we will organize people to research this turbocharged engine." The chief engineer was deeply encouraged.

Speaking of this, he remembered something: "In this case, can Commissioner Gao think of a way to reduce the weight of the engine block? We now know that ductile iron can be used to replace the gray cast iron block of the current engine. Its increased strength will inevitably lead to a decrease in weight, but the problem now is that the ductile iron we can get is not good in performance, has serious internal stress, and the yield rate is much lower than that of gray cast iron. Commissioner Gao, you are in the materials business, is there any way to solve this problem?"

Gao Zhendong listened to his words and looked at him in confusion: "This doesn't need to be solved."

"Ah? What do you mean?" This time, the comrades from the 11th Ministry of Machine Building were confused.

"I mean, the 463 engine is made of ductile iron, otherwise why is this engine so small and light?" Although the ductile iron cylinder block is not as lightweight as aluminum, it is still much stronger than gray cast iron. Aluminum cylinder blocks are now somewhat advanced, mainly due to processing problems that have caused a very high cost increase.

Hmm? The comrades from the 11th Ministry of Machinery finally understood what it meant to be in a treasure trove without realizing it: "That's ductile iron?" "Yes, that's it."

"Hey, you didn't tell me earlier."

"You didn't even ask."

"There was only 'cast iron' on the material list, and we thought it was grey cast iron."

“Ductile iron is also cast iron…”

A very important point about ductile iron is the graphite inside the spheroidization, otherwise the flake graphite will cause great problems. This is why ductile iron, which obviously has stronger mechanical properties than gray cast iron, was not used on a large scale in engines until the 80s.

The cast iron used by Gao Zhendong is naturally different from that used elsewhere.

The two groups argued for a long time over the cast iron issue, and it finally ended with the 11th Ministry of Machine Building happily asking Gao Zhendong to regularly provide an additional batch of ductile iron for improvement tests.

In addition to the X63 series engines, they also have a large number of other engines, such as the CA10 engine. It would be a good thing if they could be successfully improved.

Next, Gao Zhendong made a number of technical detail suggestions to his colleagues at Beijing Automobile Factory, such as cavity wax injection, openable sunroof, multi-stage damping doors, upgrading the radio to a tape recorder, electric seat adjustment, glove box air conditioning vents, seat ventilation and heating, etc.

I don't mean anything else, I just want to highlight a sense of luxury, and strive to redefine what a luxury car is once the 720 is launched! I want to have what others have, and I also want to have what others don't have!
When the comrades of the 11th Ministry of Machine Building listened to Gao Zhendong's words, they felt like Granny Liu walking into the Grand View Garden. These things did not involve high technology at all and could be well achieved with current technology, but the comrades just couldn't think of it.

It would be a waste of talent for this senior commissioner not to work on cars.

A certain ministry: You say that again? If you come here again, I will weld the door shut for you! ——
At the Yuezhou Shipyard in the capital of eastern Guangdong, a boat is decorated with red and colorful decorations, with a big red flower hanging on the bow.

There were firecrackers blasting and drums and gongs beating nearby, and the comrades from the Yuezhou Shipyard were singing and dancing in high spirits.

Although Yuezhou Shipyard inherited the capabilities of its predecessor, Southern Guangdong Shipyard, since its establishment and has the ability to build and repair ships in dry dock, this ship is not in the dock, and it can be vaguely seen that the orange peel texture on the hull of this ship is relatively obvious, as if it has been in use for a certain period of time.

A banner was hung on the side of the ship: "Warmly celebrate the successful conversion of our factory's first warship over 1,000 tons, as a gift for the Spring Festival!"

Although the Yuezhou Shipyard has a dry dock, it had never built warships over 1,000 tons before. It mainly built frigates and gunboats. This can be seen from the unfinished hull of the large missile frigate in the dry dock next to it.

The ship covered in red and decorated with colorful ribbons was none other than the "Qianyang", a younger brother of the first generation of frigates.

"This ship was commissioned in 58. I didn't expect that it has already started to be modified after only a few years." With such a big fuss made by the Yuezhou Shipyard, it is natural that the Navy would not remain silent. Comrades from the Navy Equipment Bureau also came.

In terms of actual equipment, this type of frigate is our first "large ship" equipped with advanced equipment such as anti-ship missiles, but it is not that large.

"The struggle situation waits for no one. This is already the third one. Together with the last one that is still being renovated in Songjiang, it can be predicted that in the first half of this year, we will have four frigates with relatively reliable air defense, anti-ship and anti-submarine capabilities!" said another naval comrade with a smile.

"The one in Songjiang is quite far if we want to deploy here."

"It's not a big problem. There is no problem with the navigation capacity of the strait now. Besides, this is just a temporary deployment. It is not a regular trip between its base and the southern waters." From this sentence, it sounds like these comrades are not simply from the Naval Equipment Bureau.

"Yes, the range of operations of the planes and ships in Angelica Province has been greatly reduced. Apart from spending some fuel, there is no problem."

As the two were talking, a comrade from Yuezhou Shipyard came over and said to them with a smile: "Comrades, everything is ready, the ceremony is about to begin."

The two men ended their conversation and walked towards the simple platform together with their comrades from Yuezhou Shipyard, where they had something to say to each other.

As the three of them walked, a comrade from Yuezhou Shipyard said, "Comrades, as you can see, the conditions of our shipyard are quite good. Although we have never built large warships, we have built small ones and modified large ones. We still have some experience. Can we also participate in the construction of the new destroyer and share the pressure of Jinzhou Shipyard?"

Jinzhou Shipyard, located at the northern gate of Bohai, has very superior capabilities, conditions, geographical location, etc.

The keel of my country's first domestically-produced frigate has already been laid. Although some weapons and equipment are still under development, this does not affect the keel laying of the ship. After all, there are not many under development and there are backup plans for all of them.

More importantly, thanks to the vertical launch system, the construction and installation of the launch device will not be affected whether the main combat missiles and other equipment are developed or not.

The two navy comrades looked at each other and said, "This? We can't make the decision. Haven't you been assigned the task of building a new type of frigate? It's all the same."

"We don't need it right now, but we would like to ask you two comrades to convey our determination and our current capabilities to our superiors..."

The three of them walked and talked, going further and further away...
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"Chief Engineer Gao, Chief Engineer Gao, please come and take a look." An experimenter shouted to Gao Zhendong on the phone.

"What's so urgent?" You sound panicked?

"Well... according to your experimental requirements, we felt like we had seen a ghost and discovered something that theoretically could not exist."

Gao Zhendong smiled in his heart: "Okay, I'll come over and take a look right away."

When Gao Zhendong rushed to the laboratory, several experimenters were scratching their heads. When they saw Gao Zhendong, they were like seeing a savior.

"Chief Engineer Gao, we have repeatedly peeled the highly oriented pyrolytic graphite with tape according to your requirements, but we have discovered a problem. When the number of peelings reaches a certain number, according to theory, the sample should no longer be able to be peeled off. After all, if the thickness is halved, the sample thickness at this time is already at the same order of magnitude as the diameter of a carbon atom. But we feel that there is something else!"

Before the discovery of two-dimensional materials, the prevailing theory was that two-dimensional crystals could not exist stably at temperatures other than absolute zero.

"How do you feel? Feeling is not enough." Gao Zhendong said with a smile.

"According to your request, the peeled sample was transferred to a 0.3 micron thick SiO2/Si wafer. Using a microscope, I can observe the contrast, which means there is something there."

"Then have you ever thought about the possibility that each peeling is not a simple split in half, but a thick and thin one, and the small number of samples you observed are the result of the survivor effect where each time it happens to be in the thicker half?"

What Gao Zhendong meant was that this piece happened to be on the thick side every time, and this happened for more than 40 times in a row. In the end, the thickness of this piece was actually much thicker than the theoretical thickness would be if it was directly halved.

"We have calculated it, but from a statistical point of view, the probability of this kind of sample appearing is much higher than the situation you just mentioned. And during the peeling process, we have been using the scanning electron microscope in this imported electron microscope to observe the thickness. We can determine its thickness up to 50nm."

The resolution of scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) at that time was not that high. In fact, until the 21st century, the resolution of scanning electron microscopes was not enough to determine how thick the graphene was. However, the microscope that Gao Zhendong made was not that simple.

Although SEM has a lower resolution, it has an advantage in that it is relatively simple to operate and is very useful before the parameters of the observed object exceed its resolution limit.

(End of this chapter)