Research starts with PhD students

Chapter 299 Aircraft Design, Zhang Shuo: I’m not here to pick problems!
The weak force is the most fundamental force that is difficult to access experimentally.

Conventional physics studies on weak force all use data analysis on signals, energy, radiation particles, etc. to infer the existence of dynamic effects in a certain phenomenon.

Research in new physics directions is following the same path.

The interference of weak force in experiments is directly reflected in the impact on experimental results, including the fluctuation value of the chaotic force field turning into strong force, and the fluctuation of element fission in gold manufacturing.

and many more.

When direct research is no longer possible and we can only make judgments based on data, it becomes very difficult to gain additional understanding of the weak force.

The S-level task in the system is to study the principle of fluctuation deviation in chaotic force field experiments, and the direct cause of fluctuation deviation is the existence of weak force.

S-level tasks require too many scientific research coins.

Zhang Shuo very much hopes to complete the research so that he can increase his understanding of the weak force's interference with the experiment. However, even if he invests all his research coins into it, it will only increase the progress a little. He is still several thousand research coins away from completion.

"take it easy……"

Research must proceed step by step.

Zhang Shuo was still very much looking forward to it. He had a hunch that research on weak force would definitely lead to the discovery of new physical phenomena.

That may even be an area you have never thought of.

In the following months, life was relatively dull. On weekdays, I stayed in the research center or Soochow University, working and discussing with other colleagues.

Zhang Shuo also lived a nine-to-five life.

Working from nine to five is really good. Life seems very easy and leisurely. There is no pressure and no need to run around or worry about research.

Four months later, new things came up.

A senior teacher contacted Zhang Shuo, hoping that he could participate in the design and development of the gravity aircraft.

"Isn't there a special team?" Zhang Shuo was a little puzzled.

The senior teacher said, "The design and initial debugging have been stuck for two months."

His tone was somewhat dissatisfied. "The core technologies are all there and there are no problems, but the overall design is stuck."

"I just came back from there and found that even the power output debugging of the hydrogen bomb battery has not been completed. The progress is too slow..."

Zhang Shuo understood as soon as he heard it. It was not because the research team was progressing slowly, but because many people who were paying attention to the project could not wait any longer.

They wanted the speed to be as fast as possible and couldn't wait to see the hydrogen bomb battery-powered aircraft take off.

For the design and technical testing of an aircraft supported by new technology, a few months is nothing. The design alone may take no more than half a year or a year.

Because it is a new technology, no one has experience.

The combination of the two cutting-edge technologies is not easy to coordinate.

Zhang Shuo didn't say much, but he decided to take a look around because he was also very interested in gravity aircraft.

Gravity technology and hydrogen bomb batteries were all research projects completed under his leadership.

Combining the two technologies to create gravity aircraft can definitely subvert the technical logic of aerospace.

The first gravity-driven aircraft is indeed of great significance.

……

The gravity aircraft research and development base is located in a former fighter base.

There are many laboratories and equipment in the base, which can be used directly. However, because the technical logic is completely different, a lot of new equipment still needs to be customized and delivered, and some professionals who understand the technology are also needed.

For example, the gravity technology research team.

For example, Tong Zhiguo's team knows more about hydrogen bomb batteries.

Tong Zhiguo did not come in person, as he still had to continue to preside over the subsequent research and development of the hydrogen bomb battery. Lu Ling led a team here and participated in the work as a member of the hydrogen bomb battery technical team.

Zhang Shuo came with Mr. Zhao from the military.

Teacher Zhao was a frequent visitor to the base. The military was very concerned about the gravity aircraft project, so when they arrived at the base, they took Zhang Shuo directly into the base.

After entering the main door, I saw a meeting going on in the next room.

Push the door open and enter.

Everyone in the room looked over.

Zhang Shuo took a quick look and found that Lu Ling was there too, as well as a few other familiar faces, but he didn't recognize the rest.

Meng Zhilin was the project leader. When he saw Professor Zhao and Zhang Shuo, he immediately came over to greet them warmly, "Teacher Zhao, Academician Zhang, please come in, come in quickly!"

"Don't bother?"

Meng Zhilin said indifferently, "We are studying the coordination technology of electric power. Academician Zhang, you are here at the right time. You can give us some technical advice."

He was only being polite.

Hydrogen bomb batteries and gravity technology are both Zhang Shuo's research, but the design and manufacture of gravity aircraft involves issues of technical coordination.

The issue of electric power we are discussing now, to put it simply, is to stably output the high-power electricity released by the hydrogen bomb battery to the various required components, including complex gravity devices, radars, electronic systems, etc.

The difficulty lies in voltage control. The power system is very complex. The output power of the hydrogen bomb battery is very high. Conventionally, it requires transformer facilities to convert it. However, the limited gravity aircraft cannot have such a large space to carry out stable conversion, so the large transformer facilities need to be compressed.

The requirements for gravity manufacturing equipment are the most complex.

Some parts require ultra-high electricity, and the electricity also needs to be stable in order to ensure the stable operation of the strong magnetic field. Technical design and control are the most difficult.

After entering the conference room, Zhang Shuo sat aside and listened to the content.

The reports from each group were all related to the study of electricity and contained a lot of professional content, but they were generally understandable.

Zhang Shuo established a design and development task with his thoughts——
【Task 2】

[Research project name: Hydrogen bomb battery output power control technology that meets the needs of gravity aircraft (Difficulty: C). ]

【Progress: 0.332%.】

(The task can be canceled. Currently, the number of scientific research coins required to cancel the task is 0.)
(The remaining progress requires 100 scientific research coins.)
“It’s not difficult, right?”

"Only C-rank."

The difficulty of research that requires 100 scientific research coins can indeed be said to be "not high", but the difficulty of technical research tasks is inherently lower than that of theoretical research tasks.

The task involves power technology issues. There are no insurmountable barriers in the research itself, and the technologies in each part are very mature.

Without innovative research, a task difficulty level of C is relatively difficult.

After establishing the tasks, Zhang Shuo listened more carefully to the meeting content, especially the reports of each group and the issues discussed.

When he encounters some questions that he doesn't quite understand, he will ask other people in a low voice.

During this process, the task progress is constantly improving.

It is indeed not difficult to complete Class C design research using system tasks.

After the meeting, Teacher Li asked everyone else to get busy, and he took Zhang Shuo to visit various places in the base.

After a rough look, we went to the hydrogen bomb battery test room together.

The main work now revolves around the hydrogen bomb battery and the design discussion related to power output. The purpose is to enable the hydrogen bomb battery to have a stable output.

The hydrogen bomb battery is already in operation, outputting electricity continuously outside the venue, and several staff members are constantly testing the output of each port.

"What's going on?" Teacher Li asked with concern.

A staff member said, "The various ports are still unstable. The main reason is that the transformer control device is too small, and the power conversion is a bit unstable."

"The power output from several major ports also did not meet expected standards."

Zhang Shuo went forward and started talking to the staff. All the questions he asked were related to the output control components and he wanted to understand how power control was performed as a whole.

After learning the general situation of the components, the progress of the task increased significantly.

Teacher Zhao asked about the work and left that day. Zhang Shuo stayed, and his main job was to solve the technical coordination problems of the gravity device and the hydrogen bomb battery.

Technical coordination, including electricity, port docking and other issues, the most important thing is to study whether the gravitational field will affect the operation of the hydrogen bomb battery.

In the design of the aircraft, it is difficult to separate the gravitational field and the hydrogen bomb battery. The hydrogen bomb battery will definitely be covered by the gravitational field to avoid being affected by the earth's gravity.

But does the gravitational field affect the operation of the hydrogen bomb battery?
This is an uncertain question.

The gravitational field will inevitably affect the operation of ionic matter inside the hydrogen bomb battery. Especially at the moment of turning it on, the sudden change in force field may cause some problems.

Internal particle matter is one thing, and other parts of the hydrogen bomb battery may also be affected.

Zhang Shuo came here to solve technical coordination problems to ensure more stable operation of the aircraft.

This work is very important.

Therefore, Zhang Shuo also held the title of "Chief Technical Consultant" and became the nominal number two person in the aircraft research and development team.

The number one person is the chief designer and chief engineer Meng Zhilin, who is fully responsible for all aspects of aircraft research and development.

Three days later, there was another meeting, and the main topic was still the power control of the hydrogen bomb battery output.

After the two technical team leaders spoke, Meng Zhilin explained the work based on the research and test content, "We can appropriately reduce the power to ensure..."

"Wait a moment."

Zhang Shuo suddenly interrupted Meng Zhilin and said, "Engineer Meng, I think this part of the design can still be modified and improved. There is no need to deliberately reduce the power to achieve it..."

Everyone looked over.

Zhang Shuo stood up and walked towards the image on the projection screen. He picked up the baton and pointed to a location, explaining, "This part can be solved by intercepting the current."

"Here, we can throw out a special conductive line to ensure safety."

"At this location, increase the number of turns of the wire to reduce the voltage..."

"In the output part, install a small voltage regulator..."

The others' eyes lit up when they heard this.

The method Zhang Shuo mentioned can indeed solve the problem just now, but it will also bring new problems. For example, other parts also need to be modified in design.

Meng Zhilin's decision to reduce power was an overall consideration, which could solve many problems at once.

Zhang Shuo came up with a solution to a problem, but it would also trigger a chain reaction, and other designs would need to be modified.

Design research seems to have become more complicated?
Zhang Shuo was also aware of this problem. After he finished explaining the solution, he continued, "I need to re-examine every part of my team and make modifications accordingly."

“In terms of electrical design, it would be best to come up with the best solution so that the gravity and other equipment can operate in the most stable state.”

Meng Zhilin frowned as he listened.

The designs of every part have to be reviewed again, and many plans that have been planned need to be modified. Wouldn't most of the work they have done before become meaningless?
"This one……"

Meng Zhilin was a little hesitant and even a little dissatisfied.

He thought for a long time, and when he was about to say something, he heard others discussing, "Some things do need to be changed."

"I felt that the design was not very good before. In some places, the power was reduced for stability. Doesn't reduced power mean reduced performance?"

"We can obviously install better equipment, but we can only lower our requirements..."

"There's nothing we can do about it. Right now, we're trying to ensure the first aircraft takes off stably, not to design a high-end aircraft. We can study it later if there are any needs."

"I have to do it all over again. I have wasted a month's work..."

"Professor Zhang Shuo is here, what are you worried about?"

Some words touched Meng Zhilin's heart.

The current work is to ensure that the first gravity aircraft can take off stably, and preferably fly stably, rather than designing some ultra-high-tech aircraft.

With so much attention from the higher authorities and the urgency of the matter, it would be best if we could quickly complete the design and produce an aircraft that can take off stably.

As for some technical flaws...

Not important at all!
If you want to manufacture an aircraft with superior performance, you can conduct targeted design research later.

Aren’t airplanes updated from generation to generation?

Meng Zhilin was also very unhappy.

He was in charge of the work on the gravity aircraft. As soon as Zhang Shuo arrived, he proposed the suggestion of "re-examining the work of all departments", and there were many voices of support.

It feels like power has been taken away from him. Should the follow-up work be handled by him or Zhang Shuo?
There has to be someone who makes the final decision!
After listening to everyone's discussion, Meng Zhilin decided to adopt Zhang Shuo's opinion because most people agreed.

"Since Professor Zhang Shuo has a suggestion, let's listen to him first..."

He really thought about it.

After the meeting, Meng Zhilin and Zhang Shuo went to the hydrogen bomb battery laboratory together to check the work of each part.

After taking a careful look, Zhang Shuo asked the staff to dismantle all the electrical equipment built around the hydrogen bomb battery. While checking the internal structure, he also pointed out a lot of problems.

Some of the problems are with materials, and some are with design.

These are all finalized designs before they are manufactured and installed.

Once a series of problems are pointed out, it will definitely have to be remanufactured, corrected, and assembled, making the work more complicated.

“We need to redesign the entire power system.”

"The entire design needs to be perfected, each part needs to be more refined, and finally the whole thing needs to be installed and tested..."

“That way there won’t be any problems.”

"Otherwise, a small internal problem may lead to a big problem in debugging, and it will be too difficult to make adjustments later."

Zhang Shuo explained to Meng Zhilin.

Meng Zhilin was very dissatisfied because he was the chief researcher and he was the one who finalized the existing designs.

Now everything has to be redesigned and revised, which is tantamount to completely negating his work.

Even though it was just an electric control system, he still felt uncomfortable. He couldn't help but say on the spot, "Academician Zhang, some designs have been finalized. If we go back to redesign and manufacture, we will need the cooperation of the factory, which will delay it for a long time."

"You know, the higher-ups are pushing us hard..."

"Meng Gong."

Zhang Shuo said seriously, "I'm not here to find problems, but I hope to do a good job in the design."

"It's just a flying machine, the most important thing is to take off stably, but if the internal design can be done well, why not do it well?"

"Moreover, this does not waste time. The design of each part is reviewed and modified, and there will be no major problems in subsequent testing and debugging."

“Otherwise, there are all kinds of problems with testing.”

Meng Zhilin asked, "If we redo everything now, will there be no problem? What if the test is still the same?"

He didn't mean to refute it, he really felt that way in his heart.

Hydrogen bomb batteries have high power output, and a stable power system is very complex.

It is like manufacturing a precision device. Because the structure of the device is very complex, there will definitely be various problems after it comes out, and it will take a long time to debug and solve them.

The time required for debugging is often longer than the design and manufacturing process.

Facing Meng Zhilin's doubts, Zhang Shuo said seriously, "I can't guarantee that the power system will be 100% problem-free, but after the redesign, the debugging time will definitely be greatly shortened."

He was very sure.

Meng Zhilin and Zhang Shuo looked at each other for a long time, and finally could only nod in acceptance.

(End of this chapter)