A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 244 Securing Land and Personnel, Unleashing One's Potential

"Hello, I am Zheng Xiuyuan, chief engineer of Baosteel. Welcome Professor Chen and Professor Zhou to visit and provide guidance."

At Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, Chen Hui and his group had just reached the exit when they saw representatives from Baosteel Group waiting to pick them up.

To their surprise, the chief engineer of Baosteel Group came in person, while Lu Siyuan, the technician who had been in contact with them, stood next to Zheng Yuanxiu, half a step behind.

Zhou Zhen clicked his tongue in surprise. He had been to Baosteel several times before, but at most they would send a junior employee to receive him. He had never seen the chief engineer or even the department head before, only during large meetings.

He turned to look at Chen Hui beside him. Of course, he knew what was going on with this change. Chen Hui was no longer an unknown person. Otherwise, he wouldn't have written Chen Hui's name in a prominent place on the list when submitting the application.

"I am deeply grateful to Director Zheng for coming to pick me up in person."

As the team leader, Zhou Zhen naturally took the lead in greeting them.

"Not at all, it is our honor to have you professors here to guide us."

Zheng Yuanxiu smiled and waved his hand, "You've all had a long journey. Come with me to the hotel to rest for the night, and I'll take you to visit the factory tomorrow."

"Let's do it today."

Chen Hui spoke up.

He's racing against time these days and doesn't care about all the usual formalities anymore.

Before Zheng Yuanxiu could speak, Zhou Zhen said first, "It's only been a few hours, it's not tiring at all. Let's go to the factory first."

"it is good."

Zheng Yuanxiu readily agreed. Thinking of the information he had seen earlier, he understood whose work it must be, otherwise Zhou Zhen would not have shown such respect to Chen Hui.

But it was the secretary, Xiao Yang, who was suffering.

As the chief engineer, Zheng Yuanxiu is already very busy, with his schedule packed every day, and it's already booked for half a month ahead. Now that his schedule has been changed at the last minute, the next half month's schedule will have to be rescheduled. Just thinking about the communication costs involved gives Xiao Yang a headache.

However, that's a headache for later. Right now, he needs to arrange the visit of the professors from Jiangcheng University. After seeing Zheng Yuanxiu and Chen Hui off in the van, Xiao Yang got into the back car and started contacting the factory to arrange the visit.

Along the way, Zheng Yuanxiu was also busy, explaining Baosteel's current clean steel refining process to Chen Hui.

Chen Hui just listened from the side. He had read a lot of related papers these days, but after all, it was just theoretical and there was still a gap between him and front-line workers like Zheng Yuanxiu. He really needed the insightful introduction from such an experienced front-line veteran.

The refining of clean steel is simply the removal of impurities from the steel. Through multiple refining processes, the oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus content is reduced to the ppm level, and the inclusion size is ≤10μm. This process achieves a qualitative improvement in the cleanliness of the steel through a combination of physical stirring, chemical adsorption, and vacuum degassing.

An hour later, the group arrived at an industrial park in Baoshan District. The van drove around the park for more than ten minutes before stopping outside a factory building of about 2,000 square meters.

Before he even got out of the car, the loud roar of the engine had already entered Chen Hui's ears through the car window, making him feel very noisy.

After getting off the bus, someone was already waiting nearby. After distributing helmets and other safety equipment to Chen Hui and his group, they led them into the factory.

"This is the KR desulfurization unit."

After waving for the factory manager to step back, Zheng Yuanxiu personally introduced the factory to Chen Hui, explaining that he had already discussed these issues in depth with Chen Hui on the way, and that he was confident Chen Hui would understand.

Chen Hui looked up at the huge device, which was five or six meters high. The device had a cross-shaped molybdenum alloy blade with a diameter of 1.8 meters, and the surface was overlaid with a tungsten carbide wear-resistant layer. The blade was cooled by water. There were six surrounding spray guns. Magnesium particles were injected into the molten iron at a speed of 300 m/s at the nozzle, which aroused a column of silvery-white magnesium vapor fire.

"Unfortunately, the blades are severely worn, which leads to insufficient vortex depth. Infrared thermography shows a temperature fault on the surface of the molten iron, and magnesium vapor condenses and fails in the low-temperature region."

Zheng Yuanxiu had already led Chen Hui to the monitor screen, pointing to the curves on it and introducing them without any concealment, while looking at Chen Hui with some anticipation.

Chen Hui nodded, without saying anything more.

Zheng Yuanxiu was somewhat disappointed, but he didn't say much. He understood that Chen Hui wasn't a god and couldn't be perfect in every aspect. However, as long as Chen Hui could solve one or two more defects in the process, Baosteel would join the ranks of international leaders, and then many things would be much easier to handle.

"This is a top-and-bottom blown converter."

Zheng Yuanxiu pointed to the 18-meter-high converter a dozen meters away. Inside the furnace was an 12-meter-long double-layered stainless steel tube, 108 Laval nozzles on the lance, and high-pressure oxygen was ejected with a frosty white shock cone. Twelve mushroom-shaped permeable bricks were embedded in the bottom of the furnace, and argon gas formed nanobubble flow through micropores...

The discomfort caused by the roaring sound had disappeared for Chen Hui. He had gradually adapted to the environment and was beginning to feel the charm of the industrial behemoth.

“I’ve been adjusting the oxygen supply curve for 30 years, but the final phosphorus fluctuation is always ±0.002%.”

Zheng Yuanxiu's voice came from beside his ear, startling Chen Hui awake, "Could you please provide your existing model and the monitoring data later, Director Zheng?"

After saying that, Chen Hui didn't say anything more, but just looked at Zheng Yuanxiu.

Zheng Yuanxiu then led Chen Hui to the next piece of equipment: vacuum chamber, riser, argon system... Zheng Yuanxiu explained everything in detail, and finally said with a wry smile, "The dehydrogenation efficiency is stuck at 72%, and the Germans have been laughing at us for ten years!"

Following that were the arc-shaped continuous casting unit, the direct reduction vertical furnace...

Half a day had passed since they finished visiting the entire process. Chen Hui and his group had dinner at the factory canteen before returning to the hotel under Zheng Yuanxiu's guidance, where they took a shower and rested.

Chen Hui, however, was in his room studying the relevant materials and data sent by Zheng Yuanxiu. Looking at the hundreds of gigabytes of data, Chen Hui was speechless for a moment, but he quickly buried himself in processing the data in front of him.

Only then could he appreciate the benefits of having students, but unfortunately Chloe's identity was sensitive, and he couldn't let her help with these confidential data.

Chen Hui was thinking about whether he should ask Wang Qiming for a few more spots when school started this year, and if there were any good students, he would recruit a few more.

But that's a story for another time. Chen Hui quickly gathered his thoughts and immersed himself in the vast sea of ​​data.

The next day, at eight o'clock in the morning, Lu Siyuan came again and gave Chen Hui another 1TB hard drive, saying that yesterday was too rushed and they hadn't prepared anything, and this was all the data they had today.

"Professor Chen, please take your time to study it. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask. Director Zheng has already given instructions."

Zheng Yuanxiu is, after all, the chief engineer, and he can't always be Chen Hui's guide. Chen Hui has improved the model for predicting the trajectory of inclusions, and he is working on small-scale tests. If the results are good, it can be put into production. This is not like being in the laboratory, where there are a lot of things that need to be coordinated by him.

Therefore, Lu Siyuan was still the one ultimately responsible for liaising with Chen Hui.

"I do have some requests."

Chen Hui pointed to the two hard drives on the table, "I need a few assistants to help me process this data, preferably with some mathematical background."

"I will report this matter to Director Zheng."

Lu Siyuan frowned slightly. This was not a matter he could make a decision on. Baosteel had many people, but there were not many talents who could meet Chen Hui's requirements, and even fewer that Lu Siyuan could mobilize.

Chen Hui nodded, "Also, I plan to stay here for a while."

"Of course, no problem. Professor Chen can stay at this hotel for as long as he wants. If he feels the environment is too poor, we can arrange other accommodations for him to ensure his satisfaction."

Lu Siyuan's tone became more assertive, indicating that he could make the decision on this matter.

Chen Hui shook his head, "Where I stay doesn't matter."

"Please arrange an office for me next to the refinery. I'll be doing my research there, and it would be best if I could frequently visit the factory to check the data."

Although Zheng Yuanxiu provided him with a wealth of data without reservation, data is often so easily misinterpreted that even a small error can lead to a huge discrepancy. If the data itself is flawed, no matter how skilled he is, he cannot build an accurate model. Therefore, he needs to be able to enter and exit the factory at any time to conduct on-site inspections and verify the data constantly to ensure there are no problems.

Lu Siyuan paused for a moment, "But the noise around the factory is probably not a suitable place for research."

"I have my own sense of proportion."

Chen Hui persisted.

……

"You want land or people?"

In the chief engineer's office at Baosteel, Zheng Yuanxiu smiled as he listened to Lu Siyuan's report. He wasn't afraid that Chen Hui would ask for resources; on the contrary, he was worried that Chen Hui would leave without asking for anything, which would mean the end of everything.

"There's not much to say about the land; just allocate him a research lab in the administration building outside the factory."

Zheng Yuanxiu waved his hand without the slightest hesitation.

As for the people, that's a bit tricky.

If Chen Hui were to be given a few mediocre talents, it would probably be difficult to accomplish anything. However, he already has a shortage of capable people, so sending them to Chen Hui would leave him somewhat stretched thin.

"Didn't a PhD student in Automation from Tsinghua University come to the fall recruitment fair a few days ago?"

Lu Siyuan reminded him.

Zheng Yuanxiu's eyes lit up. It just so happens that newcomers need time to become independent. Why not hand them over to Chen Hui and let him guide them first? If they can become successful, that would be the best. If not, it won't be a loss either.

……

Outside the refinery's administration building, on the third floor, there's a research room of about 80 square meters.
The windows of this research lab are all made of triple-glazed vacuum soundproof glass, the walls have a 10-centimeter-thick layer of sound insulation cotton, and the foundation is also made of soft shock-absorbing material. Because the building is low, there is no need to worry about the foundation being unstable.

Once the windows are closed in the room, not a single sound from the nearby factory can get in, not even a vibration. Baosteel has gone to great lengths to provide them with a suitable research environment.

Chen Hui sat at his desk, looking at the traditional model used in Baosteel's oxygen supply curve: dtd[P]=k[O]1.5[P]. Next to him were actual production data compiled by Lin Hao. It was clear that using this model would cause the carbon-oxygen product to spike from 0.0013 to 0.0028 after a period of reaction.

After picking up his pen and working out some calculations on the draft paper, Chen Hui looked at the complex data next to him again. This time, it was as if an invisible hand was clearing away the fog for him, allowing him to see the key to unlock this door in the data.

"Lin Hao, go to the factory and try to capture the scattering peaks of FeO particles in the furnace gas spectrum."

Chen Hui looked up and said to Lin Hao, who was sitting by the window on his left.

Professor Zhou Zhen and his colleagues returned to Jiangcheng University a few days ago, but Lin Hao stayed behind.

Between the other research topic offered to him by Zhou Zhen and staying at Baosteel to continue researching the current topic with Chen Hui, he chose the latter.

"it is good."

Lin Hao responded, saved his work, and got up to walk towards the factory next door. Having worked under Chen Hui for a few days, he knew Chen Hui's style: not too much formality, just get the job done.

The data collection process would not interfere with the normal refining process. With Zheng Yuanxiu's intervention and Lu Siyuan's assistance, Chen Hui and his team received the maximum cooperation from Baosteel.

Of course, Chen Hui's team is not the only one conducting the research. Baosteel has several teams within the company that are also trying to improve the process. They are also collaborating with other universities. They occasionally come to the factory to collect data, and the workers are all working together seamlessly.

However, Chen Hui's team was the only one that placed its research lab next to the factory.

Temporarily pausing his work and waiting for Lin Hao to collect the data before proceeding with the next step of the research, Chen Hui turned his attention to the direct reduction vertical furnace, next to which were the relevant data compiled by He Peng.

He Peng was the man Baosteel provided to Chen Hui. He was a genuine PhD in Materials Science from Tsinghua University, with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and a master's degree in Materials Science. He had a solid mathematical foundation and strong practical skills. To be fair, Chen Hui believed that He Peng's level was much higher than Lin Hao's.

It must be admitted that although some people can get into Tsinghua University just because they sing well, there are no weaklings among those who got in on their own merit.

"He Peng, go find some waste material from the reduction furnace and observe its pore fractal dimension under a microscope."

A few hours later, Chen Hui gave instructions to He Peng.

This is the biggest difference between applied research and theoretical research. Often, you can't just sit in the office thinking about a problem all day. Instead, you need to cooperate with experiments to verify your ideas and explore step by step. But at least, Chen Hui knows that what makes him better than others is that he is on the right path.

He Peng also stood up, but instead of leaving the office, he looked at Chen Hui and asked, "Professor, is it time for lunch? Shall I bring it to you?"

When Chen Hui checked the time, it was already 11:30.

"Ah."

After nodding, Chen Hui buried his head in the draft paper on the table again.

He Peng gave Chen Hui a deep look before walking towards the factory next door, intending to collect the waste materials first before going to eat.

These past few days, he's come to know just how hard this rumored genius works. Aside from going to the factory to check the data in person, he hasn't even seen him leave his office.

As soon as I entered the factory, Lin Hao walked up to me and asked, "It's lunchtime, shall we go eat first?"

He Peng shook his head, "I'll go get the scrap first and then go to the cafeteria."

"Should I still bring lunch for Professor Chen?"

"Ah."

He Peng nodded.

"Then I'll wait for you." Lin Hao wasn't in a hurry to leave, and stood at the door with the USB drive in his hand.

A dozen minutes later, He Peng walked out of the factory carrying a large bag of scrap like an old farmer. His steps were a little unsteady, and there was a little sweat on his forehead. Lin Hao was stunned by his appearance. "You're carrying so much?"

"Not all waste is useful. Some of it is not due to failure in restoration. I need to confirm each one before I know."

He Peng put down the sack, let out a soft breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said, "Let's go, I'll put the waste downstairs and then go to the cafeteria."

"Let's lift it together."

Lin Hao put the USB drive into his pocket and reached out to grab the other side of the burlap sack.

"I'm telling you, a Tsinghua University PhD, you're doing this kind of work in a factory?"

Do you know why I switched from theoretical mathematics to materials science?

“I understand, it’s a dream!” Lin Hao said with a hint of self-deprecation. Who hasn’t been young and impetuous? “Then you don’t have to do hard labor in the factory. Staying in the lab is just as good.”

“Old Master Yuan personally went to the fields to work, and that’s why he became Old Master Yuan. If I didn’t come to the front line of the factory, my research in the laboratory would just be a castle in the air.”

Lin Hao glanced back at He Peng and thought, "Wow, quite ambitious."

(End of this chapter)