Chapter 1018: Black technology prepared for A380?

The shared core means that the high-pressure compressor, combustion chamber and turbine are basically the same.

Of course, if the same core machine is in different working environments or has been upgraded, it is normal for the operating temperature to be slightly different.

But the problem is that the M88-2 and SeA650 appeared less than a year apart.

And 100c, for the temperature before the turbine, is almost half a generation behind.

Although it cannot be said that the higher the temperature before the turbine, the better the engine performance will be, but the correlation between them is indeed quite strong.

So there must be something wrong here.

However, at this time, Norris had not fully realized the seriousness of the matter, and just guessed casually:

"Maybe they developed some new heat-insulating coating?"

However, Professor Eleanor blew his beard and glared:

"That's ridiculous!"

He reached out and flicked the document fiercely, making a crisp snapping sound:

"Have you ever seen any coating that can increase heat resistance by 100c at a time?"

"If there is such a thing, why do we still study those alloy materials and active cooling technology?"

Facing the furious old professor, Norris also realized that his previous thoughts were a bit outrageous:

"Then...it could also be that there are some hidden dangers in the M88-2 that have not been resolved, so in order to ensure reliability, the temperature before the turbine was specially lowered."

"But the problem was solved on SeA650... or because the operating environment of passenger aircraft engines is relatively mild, the problem no longer exists, so the original design was restored..."

This explanation is obviously much more reasonable than the previous one.

Even Eleanor lowered his head in thought, seeming to be somewhat convinced.

But after about half a minute, he still shook his head:

"The M88 did reduce its performance to ensure stability, but this was mainly a problem with the compressor. I know some of the parameters of its prototype, such as the combustion chamber outlet temperature... There is not much difference between the two subsequent models, M88-1 and M88-2."

Now, the situation became a bit deadlocked.

"Forget it, let's go back to the office first. I need to take a good look at this..."

After some fruitless thought, Professor Eleanor started again.

I totally forgot that I almost said "I don't think this thing is very useful" less than five minutes ago...

Anyway, it smells really good...

……

Soon, the two arrived at the office on the second floor of the headquarters.

Eleanor took off his suit jacket and without even having time to make a cup of coffee, he hurriedly sat back behind his desk and opened the documents in his hand to study them again.

but……

No clues were found.

After all, it's just a technical manual.

Liu Yongquan handed over almost all the technical information to Snecma, except for teaching them step by step. However, the latter had not yet fully mastered the design theory of the M88-3 engine.

Rolls-Royce's level is certainly higher than Dassault's, but it is impossible to see through everything based on an ambiguous document.

Moreover, there are only a few ways to increase the temperature in front of the turbine.

Most of them are unlikely to bring a 100c improvement.

Although replacing the turbine base material has a very obvious effect, the base material affects the entire body, affecting not only the high temperature resistance but also other mechanical properties. It is almost necessary to recalculate the combustion chamber and turbine parts, which is impossible to complete in a few months.

Then there is the new active cooling technology.

For example, when film cooling was first used, the temperature before the turbine was raised to a new level.

If the new impact cooling technology is put into use, it can probably achieve similar results.

It will not affect the basic design of the engine itself, so the workload is relatively limited, and it is not an exaggeration to complete it within a year.

But the problem is that neither France nor China seems to have conducted in-depth research in this area.

In addition, impingement cooling requires that 10% or even more of the air provided by the compressor be used for cooling rather than propulsion, which in principle will result in huge thrust losses.

It may even completely offset the thrust increase caused by the increase in temperature before the turbine...

However, the thrust performance of SeA650 is quite normal, and it does not seem to have lost a lot of work gas...

Anyway, it's stuck.

On the contrary, Norris, who had been sitting on the sofa and thinking, suddenly had an idea:

"Professor, I suddenly remembered that Dr. Lapworth mentioned a research result before. By modifying the internal channel design of the air film hole, the temperature resistance performance can be improved by about 80-100°C..."

Leah Lapworth is Head of Computational Science at Rolls-Royce and Head of the Computational Science Laboratory.

In addition to being responsible for connecting with various ongoing project teams and meeting their computing needs, this laboratory also undertakes certain cutting-edge technology research and development tasks.

"Is there such a thing?"

Elinor sat up straight at that moment:

"But... I've never heard of it before?"

As an extremely mature technology, it is normal for film cooling to improve its effects as research becomes more in-depth.

But to increase so much at once...it's really a bit unbelievable.

And if such results really come out, the impact should be quite significant.

Norris shrugged:

“Because the technology has been put on hold.”

Eleanor was very surprised to hear this answer:

"why?"

Although the basic principles of film cooling and impingement cooling are similar, the former uses cooling gas relatively normally and basically has no particularly fatal defects.

Norris sighed softly:

"It was originally planned to be used on the Trent 900 engine, which could reduce fuel consumption by about 5.5%, which would make it a far better engine than the GP7200... But after actually implementing the technology, we found that both the design and manufacturing were too complicated..."

Both the Trent 900 and GP7200 are intended to power the super jumbo jet currently under development - the Airbus A380.

As a convention, both models will be included in the A380 supplier list as options to avoid putting all eggs in one basket.

Having said that, if there is a model that really outperforms the other, users are not stupid and will definitely prefer the one with better performance.

In order to simplify logistics, many airlines will try to unify the engine brands in their fleets as much as possible.

Therefore, if we can win the competition with GP7200, the benefits we will gain will not just be a few thousand engines for hundreds of A380s...

"so……"

Professor Eleanor was silent for a while, and then he slowly said:

"If SeA650 can guarantee the delivery time and quantity, it means that the French... uh... or the Chinese are likely to have mastered this... or similar technology you mentioned?"

This question made Norris unable to react for a while.

After being stunned for a moment, he realized that the other party had already agreed with his speculation.

This made him lack confidence.

"No... Professor, I'm just speculating. I'm not saying they will definitely..."

But before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Eleanor:

"But at least for now, there are no other possibilities, right?"

"hiss……"

Norris was speechless.

Obviously, Eleanor's logic is correct.

When all other possibilities have been ruled out, we can only temporarily take the last one as the correct answer.

Eleanor closed the brochure in his hand and turned to the back cover.

"I see it says here that... the SeA650 will be exhibited as a 1:1 full-scale model at the European Business Aviation Show in Geneva next week."