Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1378 The Ultimate Connection Between Theory and Practice (4k)

Since our successful fusion bomb, nuclear weapons have become a topic of discussion.

Moreover, the success of this missile just happened to meet one condition—that is, all relevant personnel were aware of the possibility of this weapon and its power.

Of course, this also has a side effect—that is, apart from nuclear weapons, nothing else can be thought of.

Besides this approach, the chief engineer couldn't think of any other way to achieve this. The main problem was that it was impossible to provide such a huge amount of energy in a short period of time. If the energy was output slowly and gradually at a low power level, it would be useless, and this thing wouldn't be a bomb.

The original idea behind this device was to kill rats in a porcelain shop, but in order to achieve the effect of electromagnetic waves damaging enemy equipment, a large firecracker had to be set off in the porcelain shop.

That's absolutely impossible.

Of course, it wouldn't be a problem if used elsewhere, but Gao Zhendong himself said that tactical nuclear weapons are not very meaningful to us now, and this kind of weapon is an out-and-out tactical nuclear weapon.

In short, the problem is that nuclear bombs can generate electromagnetic pulses. No matter how good the effect is, the threshold for use is high and it is easy to cause misjudgment. After thinking it over, it is really not easy to find a user in the short term.

Other comrades shared the same thought. Theoretically, there were other methods, but in reality, they were too slow and ineffective.

Not to mention the others, even Professor Zhou, who specializes in physics and electromagnetism, couldn't find any other solution after thinking it over and over.

But to everyone's surprise, Gao Zhendong shook his head: "We won't use nuclear weapons, we'll use ordinary explosives as the energy source!"

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb, simply put, converts the energy from an energy source into an electromagnetic pulse output, and the shorter the pulse duration, the better. However, Gao Zhendong's use of "ordinary explosives" is in contrast to nuclear weapons, and in reality, they are not so ordinary.

"Ordinary explosives?"

This was rather bizarre. Only Professor Zhou pondered and said, "If the energy of ordinary explosives can be converted into electromagnetic wave output in a very short time, then the power of this pulse could theoretically be very large. If it were that large, it could indeed affect many devices."

However, he made it very clear that this was in theory, and everyone knows how far there is from theory to practice. There are many things that are theoretically possible but have never been practically possible. The closest thing to the people present is lasers. Before Gao Zhendong developed the laser, for decades, lasers existed in theory but had never been developed.

The chief engineer turned to Gao Zhendong: "Do you have a way to release the energy of ordinary explosives in the form of an electromagnetic pulse?"

This is a very difficult matter. The energy release of explosives and electromagnetic waves are completely unrelated. As for nuclear weapons being able to emit electromagnetic pulses, it is due to fission and fusion. Even so, in the energy release of ordinary nuclear weapons, the proportion of electromagnetic pulses is extremely small.

The energy release mechanism of conventional explosives has almost nothing to do with electromagnetism. This is why no one considered using conventional explosives. In fact, some comrades thought that putting a magnetron and a battery inside a bomb would be more reliable than using explosives.

Unexpectedly, Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, I have a way!"

The comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau were overjoyed! If Chief Engineer Gao said he had a solution, then he definitely did! And it wasn't a purely theoretical or primitive solution, but one with considerable practical value and potential.

But before he could even speak, another comrade was much more eager than him!

It was none other than Professor Zhou, who studies electromagnetics.

In terms of theoretical knowledge, he was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable among his colleagues present, but this kind of highly practical and seemingly unbelievable implementation was not his forte. As researchers in the relevant field, listening to Gao Zhendong's words was like a child seeing candy!
"Professor Gao, I hope you won't hesitate to offer your guidance." Professor Zhou spoke with a touch of classical elegance.

Gao Zhendong pointed to the lights above everyone's heads: "Professor Zhou, you should know very well how this electricity is generated, right?"

Apart from uncommon forms of power generation such as solar cells, thermoelectric power generation, magnetohydrodynamic power generation, and chemical batteries, almost all electrical energy comes from wires cutting magnetic field lines.

Even the energy source that everyone often jokes about is boiling water, in fact, the steam from boiling water is used in electricity to drive conductors to cut magnetic field lines!
What Gao Zhendong wanted to say was similar to this.

Professor Zhou understood Gao Zhendong's meaning without even having to think about it.

"You want to use the energy of explosives to propel a magnet or conductor, generating a huge electromagnetic pulse in an electric or magnetic field?"

Gao Zhendong nodded: "That's pretty much the basic principle."

Professor Zhou shook his head almost without hesitation: "That's impossible. The conductors and magnets inside the bomb are limited, and the space for movement is extremely limited. Under these circumstances, even if the speed of movement reaches its limit, it is impossible to generate an electromagnetic pulse with too high an energy."

Professor Zhou spoke with great certainty, expressing his confidence in his professional abilities.

This was a rather technical topic, and the other colleagues, including Professor Luo (who was also a professor), didn't quite understand it. He was, after all, an expert in munitions; he could only say he understood the principles, but he was completely unable to offer any evaluation, or even commentary.

Gao Zhendong was also a bit perplexed; this matter was quite complicated.

Forget it, I'll just draw a diagram!

Gao Zhendong stood up, picked up some chalk, and said, "This matter is a bit complicated. Let me draw out my thoughts."

All the comrades looked at Gao Zhendong with hope, except for Professor Zhou, because he rarely interacted with Gao Zhendong and had no idea what Gao Zhendong's drawings meant.

Professor Luo, meanwhile, was intently watching Gao Zhendong's movements; he was all too familiar with this scene!
The diagram Gao Zhendong drew on the blackboard was unusually complex, more so than many of his other schematics and diagrams. There was no way around it; the subject was quite abstract, and without a detailed drawing, the situation couldn't be explained at all.

What he drew on the blackboard was an explosive flux compression generator (FCG), which looks very simple, but Gao Zhendong drew it in great detail.

It consists of a central metal tube filled with explosives, and a spiral coil wound around the outside of the tube. It looks somewhat similar to the core component of the laser that Gao Zhendong first developed. The only difference is that this time, instead of ruby, the central component is a metal tube, and the outer ring is a coil.

The metal tube and the coil are not in contact at first. One end of the metal tube leads out a wire and is connected to the same end of the coil, while the other end of the metal tube and the other end of the coil are connected to the two poles of the power supply.

Professor Zhou looked at Gao Zhendong's diagram and still felt that something seemed off.

"Professor Gao, are you trying to generate a magnetic field by using a closed loop formed by a metal tube and a coil, and then use an explosion to drive the metal tube walls around the explosive to cut the magnetic field lines? Let's not even talk about the direction of movement of your structure and the relative position of the magnetic field lines. Even if all of these are correct, the electromagnetic energy that can be generated is still limited." The other comrades just listened as if they were listening to gibberish, completely not understanding what he meant.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "No, quite the opposite, Professor Zhou, what's moving here isn't a wire, but a magnetic field!"

Even Professor Zhou was a bit confused, let alone the others.

"Magnetic field? You mean you use the explosion to expand the metal tube, pushing the magnetic field outward? The expansion speed of the metal tube determines the speed of the magnetic field?"

It seems to make some sense, but it's still not right. It doesn't generate much electromagnetic energy at all. It's no different from what he just said, except that the moving part is a conductor and the moving part is a magnetic field. Only the relative relationship of the movements has changed.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "No. What's actually moving here is the loop area, but the one that changes the most is the magnetic induction intensity!"

Professor Zhou was completely bewildered. He understood every word and every technical term Gao Zhendong used, but when put together, he had no idea what it meant.

"Professor Gao, I don't understand." He said this sincerely.

Gao Zhendong said, "Professor Zhou, you should know about the magnetic field freezing effect, right?"

Professor Zhou nodded like a student: "Yes, I know."

The magnetic field freezing effect is that, under ideal conditions, the magnetic flux through a closed solid conductor circuit with good conductivity is constant.

In layman's terms, once a closed loop is formed, the magnetic flux within the closed area is constant.

Although it's described as an ideal state, everyone knows that while the ideal state and the real state are different, it's still sufficient to guide what we do in the real world.

"Therefore, as long as we drastically compress the loop area in a very short time, the constant magnetic flux will cause the magnetic induction intensity within the closed loop to rise sharply! The increase in magnetic induction intensity is inversely proportional to the loop area, and this is an extremely rapid rate of increase!" Gao Zhendong revealed the most important mystery.

This is like squeezing a large steamed bun into a small ball; the weight of the bun remains the same, but its density increases. Here, the magnetic flux is the weight of the bun, the loop area is the volume of the bun, and the magnetic induction intensity is the density of the bun.

Professor Zhou, as if struck by a sudden realization, slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "That's it! The rapidly increasing magnetic field strength will generate a powerful current within the coil, amplifying the initial current by tens or even hundreds of times! The energy of those amplified currents comes precisely from the explosion of the explosives! Brilliant!"

He couldn't help but applaud Gao Zhendong's idea!

The most ingenious part is that, unlike the speed and range of motion of a wire cutting magnetic field lines which are severely limited by the bomb, theoretically, the minimum area of ​​a closed loop can approach zero when the loop is reduced in size. In other words, the magnetic field strength, which is inversely proportional to the area, can approach infinity!
Although this is only theoretical, if the theory is successful, this structure can generate far more energy than the principle of wire motion, and its upper limit depends on parameters such as the detonation velocity of the explosive, which can be said to maximize the conversion of the explosive's energy.

"Incredible! Absolutely amazing!" Professor Zhou exclaimed in admiration. As a scholar researching electromagnetism, he was all too aware of the ingenuity of Gao Zhendong's structure. It had simply elevated the connection between theory and practice to the extreme!

I'm impressed! Professor Gao's grasp of the technical approach is truly exceptional.

How could it not be the best? Kingdom Selection, trustworthy and reliable. Before the Kingdom of Luo's millennia-long history, the Kingdom was still very powerful. This thing belongs to the Kingdom, and the Kingdom's people have really mastered the art of using this explosive magnetic compression generator.

The other comrades didn't understand their discussion at all, but they could still read between the lines, not to mention Professor Zhou's praising attitude.

"Professor Zhou, how about it? I told you Professor Gao had a solution, didn't I?" Professor Luo said cheerfully.

As for the chief engineer of the National Defense Commission and the comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau, they all had an expression of "I don't understand, but I'm deeply shocked."

The problem that had been puzzling me just moments ago suddenly became clear, and the principle behind it all became apparent!

This is a very rare step; if the underlying principle is not understood, there's no need to discuss the rest.

Comrade Zhendong, stay calm!

Seeing their expressions, Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "This structure actually has some flaws..."

Here it comes, Gao Zhendong's almost always-followed routine when proposing a new technology—first, he tells others about its shortcomings.

"What are the defects?" This was the question that the comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau were most concerned about, while Professor Zhou was the least concerned. He was engrossed in realizing the principle of the EMP bomb, and such specific defects were not within his consideration.

Gao Zhendong said, "Due to structural and physical limitations, the electromagnetic wave frequency generated by this structure cannot exceed 1GHz, and the output power of the bomb is still limited to a certain extent."

"Restricted, but not unusable?" The comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau were very familiar with Gao Zhendong's choice of words.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, this can be called a low-frequency electromagnetic pulse bomb. It does have an effect, and the effective range is not small."

His words made his comrades realize that this bullet was actually a ranged attack weapon.
What is meant by high-level AOE damage? Those who know, know.

"How big?"

"For low-frequency pulse bombs, a basketball court would be about the size, just a rough estimate," Gao Zhendong said.

"A basketball court? That's enough!" The comrades from the Air Force Equipment Bureau were overjoyed.

It might sound like a slightly heavier bomb, but we need to consider one thing—for heavily protected targets, the effectiveness of a bomb at this distance will be severely reduced. Even a thick wall could block the shockwave. Moreover, this kind of bomb is not suitable for use in a china shop.

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bombs are different; electromagnetic waves can penetrate walls! They are at least more effective at penetrating walls than shock waves.

For an air force that is already using various precision-guided weapons, hitting an area the size of a basketball court is not difficult.

(End of this chapter)