Xiaomi Heavy Industry, its first entrepreneurial venture!

Chapter 364 Something's Wrong with This Steam Turbine! (First Update!)

Looking at these data, Liao Ping's brows furrowed unconsciously. Gao Hai, who was standing next to him, noticed the change in his expression and slowly walked over, asking in a low voice, "Is there anything else wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong with it." When asked, Liao Ping shook his head slightly, put the document away, turned around and walked towards the steam turbine that was being installed. He stood around the installers, carefully observing and occasionally helping out.

In scientific research, having doubts is a good thing, but clear evidence is needed.

The equipment is still being installed, and we haven't seen it clearly yet. We should put aside our doubts and wait until the equipment is installed and inspected before making any further decisions.

He didn't give a direct answer, but Gao Hai saw everything he did without asking any questions. Instead, he silently kept it in mind, planning to ask him later.

The preparations went on until nightfall.

During dinner, Gao Hai finally voiced his question:
"Chief Engineer Liao, your behavior at the site this afternoon seemed a bit off. Are you feeling unwell? Should I ask you to take a day off?"

"No need!" Liao Ping waved his hand. Everyone was smart enough to know that Gao Hai wasn't asking about his health, but rather why he had that reaction that afternoon.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally voiced his question:

"I don't think this time it will succeed!"

These words only made Gao Hai pause for a second. He smiled, waved his hand, and said casually, "Chief Engineer Liao, you're overthinking it!"

"This is just a test. If it succeeds on the first try, we can only say that God is on our side and then we'll find an opportunity to burn incense in gratitude."

"Failure is the norm!"

Don't put pressure on yourself!

"No!" Realizing the other party had misunderstood him, Liao Ping shook his head repeatedly and quickly corrected him:

"What I mean is that Xiaomi Heavy Industry may not be able to replicate the miracle of the last test and succeed on the first try this time."

"Because when I looked at the weight parameters of the steam turbine, I found that the weight was much less."

"This should not happen without a major breakthrough in processing and materials technology."

"This situation can only mean that they have replaced a large number of materials."

"The newly replaced materials may have insufficient stability."

"It may perform well in tests, but problems will arise under long-term use."

Liao Ping's words also made Gao Hai frown. This was the first time China had ever modified an aircraft carrier, and they had no prior experience. Therefore, they were on tenterhooks every step they took, fearing that something might go wrong.

In terms of relevant decision-making, the overall attitude is that it may not be advanced, but it must be stable, and stability must be guaranteed to prevent problems.

If this thing is finally built with great difficulty, and then it breaks down as soon as it's towed out to sea, then there will be a lot of trouble.

Therefore, steam turbine units will continue to be used when selecting relevant power sources.

If, as Liao Ping claims, Xiaomi Heavy Industry used new materials in the imitation of this steam turbine and could not guarantee its stability, then no matter how powerful the steam turbine is, it cannot be used on a ship.

But he quickly put those thoughts out of his mind.

Since testing hasn't started yet, all these random thoughts should be put aside and we should wait for the test results!

He stuffed a piece of beef brisket into his mouth, swallowed it in one gulp, and gave Liao Ping a reassuring look:

"Chief Engineer Liao, please don't worry. The shipbuilding industry is still working on the outer shell and adjusting the structure."

"It will take at least a year."

"If all else fails, we can start the steam turbine and leave it running indefinitely."

"In a year, they can develop all sorts of problems!"

Gao Hai's words of encouragement helped Liao Ping out of his rut. Only then did he suddenly realize that it was the sudden appearance of Xiaomi Heavy Industry that had accelerated their progress.

If things had progressed normally, they would still be struggling with the arresting cables for the aircraft carrier.

Extrapolating from this normal timeframe, other branches have ample time to conduct testing!

Thinking of this, Liao Ping picked up a piece of potato from the plate and put it in his mouth, but he spat it out as soon as it entered his mouth.

This is a piece of ginger disguised as a potato!
After lunch, Liao Ping returned to the workshop and continued to oversee the equipment installation.

Because we brought people from Xiaomi Heavy Industry, and with Cao Bin and a few others providing guidance, plus some optimizations to the steam turbine design, the installation was completed very quickly this time.

A group of people worked from the afternoon of the first day until noon of the second day, and the main installation of the steam turbine was almost complete. The remaining work was all about installing small instruments and valves.

After another busy day, the entire steam turbine unit was completely installed.

When the last valve was installed and passed the installation test, Cao Bin lightly ticked the last item on the installation table in his hand with a pen.

Then, he signed his name and the date at the end.

And took a picture.

After doing all this, he took the form and came to Liao Ping and Gao Hai:
"Chief Engineer Liao, Representative Gao, the Xiaomi Heavy Industry's TB12-style steam turbine kit has now been officially installed. Here is the relevant installation work sheet. Please check it and then complete the handover!"

"Okay!" Liao Ping also had an installation sheet in his hand. He nodded, took the installation sheet from Cao Bin, and then began to check it carefully.

All items have been installed and have passed the relevant tests.

Although these tests are somewhat hasty, it's still in the experimental stage, and things are far from settled, so there's no time to worry about that now.

After checking, he signed his name on his own installation form, and then signed the installation form given to him by Cao Bin.

Finally, he handed both forms to Gao Hai.

Gao Hai took the form, checked it, wrote his name on it, and then put it in his briefcase.

He locked the zipper, then turned to look at Liao Ping with excitement:

"Chief Engineer Liao, shall we begin?"

Liao Ping took a deep breath, grabbed the walkie-talkie that had been hanging around his neck, and gently pressed the switch:
"Attention all departments, the steam turbine unit test is about to begin. All personnel are requested to move to a safe distance."

"Repeat, all personnel except those in the testing group, please move out of the safe zone."

"This is a steam turbine, a high-pressure device. If a problem occurs, it will be very serious."

His voice was amplified throughout the workshop by the loudspeaker. Upon hearing his voice, the installation personnel in the workshop took their equipment and orderly left the site, retreating to a safe distance, leaving the site to the testing team.

Once the test team was in place, Liao Ping picked up the walkie-talkie again:

"Inspect the lubrication system, cooling system, and fuel supply system."

"Prepare to fill the boiler compartment with water!"

"60 minutes to prepare!" Upon receiving the order, the test team members grabbed their reports and rushed to their assigned workstations. At their respective workstations, they followed the pre-planned process to check, record data, and fill out reports.

Although everyone's movements were very precise, it was their first time doing this, so they were a little nervous, and everyone's faces were covered in sweat.

By the time the heavy oil for combustion was preheated to 100 degrees Celsius by the fuel system, 43 minutes had passed.

Record the time, inject diesel fuel into the fuel system pipeline, and successfully ignite the boiler. After successful ignition, switch the fuel system to gradually replace diesel fuel with heavy oil.

As the heavy oil burned, the pressure in the boiler began to rise slowly, but as soon as it did, Liao Ping frowned.

He put the walkie-talkie to his mouth: "Record the boiler pressure data and the lifting time."

"Boiler pressure data is recorded to three decimal places, and boost time is recorded to milliseconds!"

Seeing his expression gradually become serious, Gao Hai quickly leaned closer: "Is something wrong?"

When asked, Liao Ping did not answer immediately. Instead, he waited for the data team to record several sets of data and bring them to him. After comparing the data for a while, he put it down and replied, "The pressure has increased too quickly!"

"Boilers are metal equipment. If high pressure is added to the high temperature, the boiler may be damaged due to the large change in thermal stress."

"We need the boiler to have an emergency start function, but if the pressure rises abnormally under normal use, it means that there is likely a design problem."

Just then, a tester responsible for recording data screamed:
"17 minutes, the pressure exceeded one megapascal!"

The scream brought Liao Ping back to his senses, and he quickly grabbed the walkie-talkie and shouted:
"All personnel, evacuate to the safe zone. Control panel, be ready to shut down the boiler at any time."

After giving the order, Liao Ping suddenly turned to look at Cao Bin. The relaxed expression on his face disappeared, leaving only anger. Just as he was about to speak, Cao Bin smiled at him and reached out to ask him for the walkie-talkie.

Then, bypassing Gao Hai who was about to speak, he stood in front of Gao Hai and Liao Ping, and under everyone's gaze, put the walkie-talkie to his mouth:

"All engineers from Xiaomi Heavy Industry, step forward and continue testing!"

Liao Ping tried to stop him, but Cao Bin preemptively raised his hand to block him:
"Chief Engineer Liao, we're professionals, let us handle this!"

Unlike the group of people at Jiangnan Shipyard who were filled with anxiety, the engineers at Xiaomi Heavy Industry were very bold. They took the data recording reports and started recording data next to the running steam turbine.

Cao Bin stood in a conspicuous position, occasionally picking up the walkie-talkie to say a few words:
"Release some steam to preheat the steam turbine!"

"Introduce steam into the steam superheater for secondary heating! Pressurize!"

"Five minutes to check if the steam turbine has finished preheating!"

"Open the valve to let the steam enter the high-pressure turbine, move the generator set, and guide the turbine steam into the generator set."

Under his methodical command, the entire steam turbine unit finally began to operate smoothly. The boiler was sending steam out, and the steam turbine was spinning wildly. The only pity was that the steam turbine was not equipped with a propeller, so it could only send the rotational power to the gearbox, causing the gearbox to spin wildly.

The steam flowing out of the high-pressure turbine is then piped to the adjacent generator set, which drives the generator to run. The generated electricity is wasted because it is not connected to an electrical system.

Once the entire steam turbine unit was running smoothly, Cao Bin turned around, smiling, and handed the walkie-talkie to Liao Ping:

"Chief Engineer Liao, here you go!"

After returning the walkie-talkie to Liao Ping, Cao Bin stepped aside, crossed his arms, and quietly watched the steam turbine unit operate.

Holding the walkie-talkie, Liao Ping wanted to give a reprimand, but seeing the Xiaomi Heavy Industry engineer working calmly next to the steam turbine, he swallowed back the words he was about to say.

But soon, he put the walkie-talkie to his mouth again:

"All personnel, retreat to a safe distance. Control panel, push the pressure to maximum, put the steam turbine unit into over-limit operation mode!"

Upon hearing that they were about to enter over-limit operation mode, the Xiaomi Heavy Industry engineers who were busy next to the steam turbine unit also looked up at Cao Bin.

Cao Bin nodded to them, and then the engineers stepped back, retreating to the designated safety perimeter.

Once everyone had retreated to a safe area, the engineers at the control panel pressed switches one by one, pushing the steam output, fuel output, and everything else to their limits, simulating a steam turbine frantically outputting power during an emergency battle.

With the last switch pressed, the gearbox, which was already spinning wildly, spun even more wildly.

At this point, the engineers responsible for compiling the data gathered together and presented it to Liao Ping and his team.

Liao Ping eagerly took it, his eyes immediately falling on the start-up time and the pressure change data at various locations on the equipment.

In the startup time column, two important times are marked.

[0-1 MPa: 17 minutes]

[1-5 MPa: 43 minutes]

After staring at those two times for a while, Liao Ping turned to Cao Bin and waved the data list in his hand:

"Chief Engineer Cao, I think you might need to explain why the startup time is so short!"

"Don't you know that such a rapid emergency start-up will damage the equipment?"

"I understand!" Cao Bin released his arms, nodded seriously, and slowly walked forward to take the documents from Liao Ping's hands.

He wasn't stupid; he could understand what Liao Ping meant.

If he doesn't explain himself clearly now, he'll have to call his senior brother later, and if his senior brother gets scolded, he'll definitely cause trouble for him.

His left thumb pressed down on the two data points, while his right hand pointed to the steam turbine unit that was operating at high speed:

"The advantage of steam turbine units is that they are stable, and they use heavy oil, so they are very cheap."

"But the downside is that it's relatively slow to start up."

"As a materials scientist, Chief Engineer Liao, I am well aware of your concerns."

"But I can tell you plainly that you are worrying unnecessarily."

"Yes, you heard me right, it's just needless worry."

"You have absolutely no need to worry like the man from Qi, fearing that the sky will fall down."

"Because of this equipment, we have done special treatment to ensure that these materials will not be damaged by thermal stress, even under emergency high temperature and high pressure conditions."

"Of course, it will not be damaged by thermal stress, which goes against the common sense of physics."

"The correct description should be related thermal stress damage, which would be at a very low level!"

"It's about the same level as normal use!"

"If you don't believe me, you can install propellers and stuff, and keep this thing running in an over-limit operating state!"

"Run for 72 hours, and you'll see if I'm telling the truth!"

(End of this chapter)