Chapter 1029: Does the Trent 900 have design flaws?

That evening, the R&D team, which had been officially named the "Trent 900 Turbine Production Project Group", held its first project seminar attended by all key members.

"Comrades, I don't think there is any need to emphasize again the importance of this mission to Gaofei and the entire group."

Chang Haonan got straight to the point at the beginning:

"The production contract Rolls-Royce gave us includes two parts. The first part is the relatively traditional high-pressure turbine. I took a quick look at the information on this part this afternoon. It is an upgraded model of the aviation materials used in RB211-524B4. It can be expanded based on previous experience."

He pulled out a piece of paper from the folder in front of him:

"Moreover, after preliminary testing by the technical department, the turbine blades given to us by the British are semi-finished blanks. The crown part has not been processed yet, and the surface has not been coated with a heat-insulating coating..."

Obviously, as an old company, Rolls-Royce is still on guard against some particularly sensitive areas.

Although it was inevitable that some confidential information would be leaked when hiring someone to do the processing, after removing the detailed design parameters of the blade tip and the materials used for the thermal insulation coating, two key details of the turbine structure, it could at least prevent China from replicating a Trent 900 exactly.

By 2002, few Western companies dared to say, "We can't make it even if we give them the technology."

"Of course, everyone just takes what they need in business, so it's normal to keep some things in reserve."

Chang Haonan was very open-minded about this:

"Moreover, such semi-finished blanks are easier to handle. First, there is no need to consider the coating problem. Second, the fixture can be directly fixed on the blade tip and blade root, and there is no need to redesign it..."

"In general, this part of the work is to find suitable processing parameters based on the properties of the new nickel alloy material. The workload may be a bit, but basically it is just a step-by-step process."

When they heard this, everyone, especially Zhang Zhenhua, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

As a result, Chang Haonan's next sentence made them stop laughing:

"So, now that we have accumulated experience, I am going to let you guys handle the high-pressure turbine..."

After saying this, the former rested his chin on his hands and glanced calmly at the many faces in front of him.

And stayed in several locations for a period of time.

It's like thinking about who to choose as the lucky audience...

In an instant, the temperature in the conference room seemed to drop a lot.

Although Chang Haonan's expression was still warm, in the eyes of others, he looked just like the head teacher who appeared outside the back door and window of the classroom during school hours...

"Mr. Chang... Mr. Chang."

Zhang Zhenhua subconsciously looked around, feeling that this matter might very likely fall on him, and inevitably felt a little guilty:

"I think, should I... let it settle for a while?"

It’s not his fault that he’s slow to understand.

When the production of WS-10 was being finalized, Chang Haonan also started the research from scratch. Although the 606 Institute might not have been able to keep up with the pace at that time, at least they went through the whole process.

At least you can slowly understand it after you go back.

But when it came to trial-producing the RB211 turbine blade samples, not only had Chang Haonan himself become very skilled, but even the veterans who came from the 606 Institute to provide support had already experienced the two models of WS-10 and M88-3.

So the progress is actually very fast.

You know, it felt like almost 40 days had passed for Rolls-Royce, but in fact, for Gaofei, excluding receiving information, matching requirements, and several rounds of trial production, it only took one month.

In addition, Zhang Zhenhua came from Factory 430, so his foundation was originally weak.

It's normal to feel unsure.

However, Chang Haonan knows very well that some people will never reach their limits unless you push them.

Moreover, he happened to be in Haojing right now, so he would have a backup plan even if something really went wrong.

If Zhang Zhenhua were to take charge after this project was completed, the cost of error correction would be high...

"Old Zhang..."

Chang Haonan said in a half-joking tone:

"We have two production tasks on hand. The other one is a low-pressure turbine using high-temperature resistant titanium alloy. This type of material is almost completely blank for us."

"Originally I was planning to take charge of the latter part myself, but if you really don't want to, then we can switch..."

I can only say that the roof-lifting theory is indeed useful sometimes.

Zhang Zhenhua, who was completely numb, immediately shook his head:

"No, no, no... Then I'll be in charge of the high-pressure turbine..."

The conference room was suddenly filled with a happy atmosphere.

However, we cannot just keep squeezing at this time.

We definitely still need to provide some support.

So, after the laughter gradually subsided, Chang Haonan continued:

"In addition, I will ask Comrade Chen Zhongsheng and Comrade Zhong Yi to join you as technical consultants. They are already quite experienced in the process development of nickel-based alloy materials."

"I believe that with the cooperation of the three of you, we will be able to properly solve the production problem of high-pressure turbines..."

The two names he mentioned were from Institute 606 and Liming Factory. Both were technical personnel selected by Liu Yongquan to support the work of sister units.

And, if nothing unexpected happens, even after the project is completed, Zhong Yi will still remain in Gaojing to hold a leadership position.

"Then thank you, Mr. Chang..."

Zhang Zhenhua's originally pale face now had a little more color.

Chang Haonan waved his hand and then switched directly to the next topic:

"The next part is about the low-pressure turbine..."

Having said that, he adjusted his posture slightly and sat up straighter.

This means something like "I'm going to get serious.jpg".

Following Chang Haonan's action, dozens of people in the room became serious.

"In general, the operating temperature of the low-pressure turbine is relatively low, and the demand for heat dissipation is not stringent... However, the situation of the low-pressure turbine of the Trent 900 is quite special."

This time, he no longer gestured directly in the air, but turned on the laptop and projector next to him.

A design drawing with a lot of data marked on it soon appeared on the screen.

But it is not the blade part which is the most important.

It's the turbine disc.

Or strictly speaking, it is the part where the turbine disc and the turbine shaft are connected.

"In the low-pressure turbine, the difficulty lies on the one hand in the material problem I just mentioned. We have never done this before and are not familiar with it. On the other hand, the design of this turbine is rather... strange."

Chang Haonan pondered over the words for a long time before finally finding a more euphemistic statement.

"It may be because the three-rotor structure itself has made the shaft part very complicated, or it may be some other reason. In short, Rolls-Royce did not design an anti-overspeed design for the low-pressure turbine of the Trent 900... and although there is not enough information, I suspect that they did not even have an anti-overspeed design for the intermediate-pressure turbine..."

"Under normal circumstances, this won't have any impact, but once a fault occurs and the turbine shaft breaks, the intermediate and low-pressure turbines that lose their load will rapidly increase in speed under the push of the airflow until the blades can no longer withstand the huge centrifugal force and are thrown out of the engine..."

As an aero-engine designer, Chang Haonan inevitably suffers from some occupational diseases.

In short, it looks awkward no matter how you look at it.

The key is that he does not have the complete technical information of the Trent 900 and does not know how Rolls-Royce plans to solve the hidden dangers in this area.

Or are they really confident that their engines will not have the problem of broken shafts?

"Speaking of this, Mr. Chang."

Ren Bingda suddenly interrupted:

"When I was communicating with Xiluo Company before, I heard Mr. George Brin mention it by accident."

"He said that the companies responsible for producing the turbine shaft and turbine accessories of the Trent 900 engine are Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries..."

"Cough-cough-"

Chang Haonan almost couldn't hold it in.

I wanted to laugh, but it didn't seem appropriate.

I ended up choking on my saliva...

In fact, IHI and Kawasaki themselves were not involved in the quality crisis of Japanese companies that year.

However, after such an incident, Rolls-Royce still dared to choose them as a supplier. I can only say...

remarkably brave.

"Forget it, let's do our own thing first..."

Chang Haonan stopped smiling and waved at Ren Bingda:

"In short, what is relevant to us is that the density of air film holes at the joint between the turbine disk and the turbine shaft is greater than that of ordinary models, and the requirements for stress control and defect control during the processing are also higher..."

"..."

Chang Haonan spent about three hours briefly introducing his research and development plan and the specific directions that each team was responsible for.

It has to be said that this was a challenge even for him.

The main issue is still the construction period.

On the surface, Luo Luo is not in a hurry this time.

They even specifically requested that the contract signing date be written as December 2002.

The delivery of samples certainly could not be earlier than the signing of the contract, so it was pushed back to before April 2003.

This adds up to nearly 8 months.

It seems that the schedule is quite generous.

But Chang Haonan knew that an unexpected incident was likely to occur in early 2003, which would affect the work progress in the first half of the next year.

If you exclude this part, there are only four months left.

Apart from the International Congress of Mathematicians, which was postponed to the end of the year because Perelman could not be contacted for a while...

Only three and a half months left...

We still have to race against time.

……

After the tasks were assigned, the seminar came to an end.

Everyone went back to rest for a night and officially started work the next day.

However, Chang Haonan called out to Ren Bingda, who was about to leave:

"Old Ren, wait a moment."

The latter just lifted his butt halfway and sat back on the chair:

"Mr. Chang, please tell me."

Chang Haonan reached out and knocked on the high-temperature titanium alloy material in front of him, and said in a deep voice:

"You are a local, so you should be familiar with the situation at Gao Jiaotong University and Gao University of Technology."

"After I go back, I'll think about whether there are reliable and decent scholars in the field of metal materials research. I'll bring them to our project team. Of course, I'll also find some comrades who meet the requirements from the 621 Institute."

Ren Bingda did not reply, but just smiled and said "I understand", then nodded.

According to the contract signed between Xiluo Company and Gaofa Group, Party B shall not hand over the technical data of Trent 900 to any third party organization or unit without Party A's approval.

Of course, this is just a sentence that must be added to the contract template.

The actual situation is that Luo Luo knew that Gaofa Group would definitely use the information for reference.

Gaofa Group also knew that Luo Luo knew that he would use the information for reference...

But this kind of thing is known in the heart.

Still can't make it too ugly.

So Chang Haonan was not prepared to openly violate the regulations——

It is okay not to give the information to a third party.

But I invited someone from a third party to join our project team, and you can’t control that...