Chapter 1357 The high-pressure steam engine succeeded
In the seventeenth year of Xuanping alone, several steam engine manufacturers in the Tang Empire, led by Zhaoqing Machinery Company, sold more than a thousand steam engines of various types in the seventeenth year of Xuanping.
It's just that these are used in industry today as low-pressure steam engines, and the steam pressure is generally between 0.11 MPa and 0.13 MPa.
This steam pressure has almost not changed in the past ten years. Improvements to low-pressure steam engines for industrial use are mostly based on traditional structures in order to utilize steam pressure more efficiently. Although the continuous improvements are also very effective.
Large, and laid the foundation for the large-scale application of steam engines in industry.
However, this still cannot change the shortcomings of the steam engine, which is heavy and bulky, and is not suitable as a ship power, let alone a train power.
The Navy has tried many times to move existing low-pressure steam engines onto ships over the years, but the reason why it has been so far is because there are still many problems that have not been solved.
The existing low-pressure steam engines are too large, too heavy, and have low power. These make existing low-pressure steam engines unable to be used as ship power. At most, they can only be used as emergency power.
However, the high-pressure steam engine developed by the Royal Institute of Technology has reached 0.35 MPa, and this is just a prototype. Once this No. 18 prototype is proven to be feasible, there will be a series of improvements in the future.
At that time, it will be possible to increase the steam pressure to a higher level of 0.5 MPa or even one MPa or even higher.
Li Xuan immediately gave instructions to increase investment, continue testing, and prepare to select a date for inspection.
In fact, without Li Xuan's instructions, the Royal Institute of Technology was also inspired by the success of the No. 18 prototype. You know, before this, they had already produced seventeen prototypes, but there was no such thing.
One with a trouble-free operation time of more than an hour.
The previous ones were limited by materials and processing levels, and there were also some design issues. Most of them could only run for a few minutes, or at most, dozens of minutes before various problems occurred.
Now, the first operational test of the No. 18 prototype lasted for three hours. Without saying a word, they made certain design improvements based on the operational test results of the first prototype and immediately built the second prototype.
Taiwan prototype machine.
During this period, they also continued to test the first prototype. During the test, they successfully achieved twelve hours of trouble-free operation, and then successfully achieved a twenty-four-hour trouble-free operation test.
In the fourth test, it was declared dead after running continuously for fifty-six hours.
After inspection, it was found that the problem did not occur in the cylinder, but in the transmission structure. In other words, in theory, core components such as the cylinder can withstand continuous operation for a longer period of time, and this is very important.
After repairing and improving the traditional structure, and in order to obtain more realistic test data for the core components of the steam engine, they simply tested the steam engine itself without adding any transmission structure, without power output, and this test has not stopped until now.
, the project team plans to keep running it until it reaches its limit.
When the first prototype was subjected to the extreme running time test, they also built the second and third prototypes, and they conducted the extreme pressure test on the second prototype.
To this end, they made targeted improvements to better increase the steam pressure, increasing the steam pressure from 0.35 MPa to 0.5 MPa. After success, they continued to press the limit of the testing machine.
From 0.35 MPa, to 0.5 MPa, to one MPa, to three MPa, to five MPa!
When challenging 5.5 MPa, the cylinder of the core component cannot withstand cylinder explosion!
However, the success of 5 MPa also greatly stimulated them. You must know that a few days ago, they were still working hard for 0.35 MPa!
But in the past ten days, they have raised the limit standard of steam pressure from 0.35 MPa to 5 MPa!
This has brought about almost leap-forward development!
If the mass-produced model can maintain stable operation at an air pressure of five MPa, then the steam unit produced can even reach tens of thousands of horsepower!
Of course, this is impossible. This standard was already the standard of later generations during World War I. No matter how awesome the Royal Institute of Technology of the Tang Empire was, it could not reach this level.
This five megapascals is only the limit standard of the testing machine and cannot be maintained for a long time. When it is actually used, after their testing, it will be maintained at around 0.65 megapascals at most, and this 0.65 megapascals,
It can be regarded as extreme operation. If it is used normally, it is best to keep it below 0.5 MPa.
After all, there is a huge gap between laboratory standards and mass production standards!
The research at the Royal Institute of Technology is to obtain the ultimate number and then obtain the next research direction. If it is mass production application, then cost and stability must be taken into consideration.
After all, in actual use, it is unacceptable to accept an ultra-high-pressure steam engine that can explode with high power but can only run for more than ten minutes.
Even for the military, the minimum standard they put forward is that it must run continuously without failure for fifteen times!
This is just the minimum standard. In fact, if it is fifteen days, it is difficult to apply in actual combat. The time for warships to deploy for combat can easily take several months. Even if it is just an ordinary voyage, a single voyage can easily take ten and a half days.
months, and it is obviously impossible for the Navy to set up a steam engine maintenance factory in every port, especially overseas ports.
Therefore, in order for the steam engine on the battleship to achieve actual combat value, it needs to run stably for at least a month. Even if there are some minor problems during this period, they can only be minor problems. The engineers on the ship can solve them on the spot and cannot be used when necessary.
It's such a big problem that you drive it into the dock and then disembowel it for overhaul.
The second prototype was used for extreme high-voltage testing, while the third prototype was used for testing traditional systems and other systems.
When Li Xuan received the test report from the Royal Institute of Technology again, what he saw was that the first prototype had been running without failure for a full ten days!
The ultimate steam pressure of the second prototype is 5 MPa.
The third prototype was used to test other systems and also obtained the expected data.
Now, they have built a fourth prototype based on these three prototypes!
And this fourth prototype is not used for various tests, but is prepared as a prototype for mass production!
When Li Xuan saw this, he decided that he would personally watch the operation test of the fourth prototype!
Because the first three prototypes are basically laboratory products and are basically impossible to be mass-produced, the fourth prototype was developed as a premise for mass production and practicality, which has a different meaning.
After learning that Li Xuan was coming to inspect in person, the Royal Institute of Technology also paid great attention to it. Although Emperor Li Xuan often came to the Royal Institute of Technology for inspections over the years, everyone knew the status of the steam engine in the eyes of the Holy Emperor Li Xuan.
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Otherwise, the project team would not submit almost every test report, because Shengtianzi needs to know the development progress of the high-pressure steam engine at all times.
The number of R&D projects at the Royal Institute of Technology ranges from 1,000 to 800. Basically, every teacher and student at the school is engaged in all kinds of messy research and development while studying.
Therefore, the projects they develop are all messy, ranging from daily necessities, to theoretical research, to weapons, etc., and they are all developed by people.
But what Li Xuan can focus on all the time is the steam engine project.
After learning that the Holy Emperor was coming, the Royal Institute of Technology had made preparations early. What's interesting is that Li Xuan was not the only one to watch the test of the fourth prototype, and it was not only those who came with the court.
Senior civil and military officials, as well as general managers of several enterprises directly under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises.
Liu Ping, the general manager of Zhaoqing Machinery Company, couldn't wait to come to the Royal Institute of Technology yesterday when the steam engine project team from the Royal Institute of Technology had already developed a mass production prototype of a high-pressure steam engine.
, but at that time, the people in the steam engine project team of the Royal Institute of Technology were busy making final test preparations to welcome the inspection of the Holy Emperor, and they had no time to deal with him.
But Liu Ping knew the importance of this kind of high-pressure steam engine. He didn't see anyone yesterday. He ran over again early this morning, but this time he didn't go to find the R&D personnel of the project team with their nostrils turned upward.
The teachers and students at the Royal Institute of Technology are all monsters, and there are only a few normal people who are difficult to deal with, especially the main leaders of the steam engine project team.
No face is given.
Well, there is no way, who makes their political status no lower than that of the court bosses!
Lin Hui, the leader of the steam engine project team, is the dean of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology. He is a second-grade Earl of the Empire. His Earl's Palace was given by the Holy Emperor. His wife was also a matchmaker by Li Xuan himself, and she married Bai Bai.
The legitimate daughter of the Bai family of the Empress Dowager's mother's family is always protected by the Guards during her daily travels. She is specially granted the right to enter the palace at any time (except during the palace confinement period) and can go to the palace at any time.
It doesn’t matter if you go to the secret palace. Basically, civil servants of fourth rank and above, and military officers of colonel and above have this power. However, they can enter the palace to have an audience at any time. This is the privilege of the minister on duty in the Imperial Study Room!
He, a scientific researcher, was able to win so many honors because of one thing: he was a super genius and made outstanding contributions to the scientific development of the Tang Empire.