A big country of aerospace with black technology

Chapter 30 Gas Generator-Turbine Pump Joint Test

Most things in this world can be solved with money, and the same is true in the field of scientific research.

Since the sales dividends from Factory 703 arrived in the account, the progress of the entire research institute has been soaring like a rocket taking off.

All kinds of experimental equipment and materials are consumed day and night like they don't need money.

In less than a month, almost half of the more than 30 million US dollars allocated was spent.

Of course, these costs are all worthwhile. Originally, Zhang Xingyang predicted that it would take three or four months to make substantial progress in the core system.

In just over 20 days, the development of the turbo pump, which is the core of the engine core, has been completed.

The turbo pump plays the role of the heart in the engine system, and it needs to deliver more than 400 kilograms of propellant fuel at high pressure within 1 second.

As a high-speed rotating component in a liquid rocket engine, the turbo pump is also the only high-speed rotating machine among the important components of the engine.

If we regard the turbo pump as a water pump, its working pressure can pump water from sea level to an altitude of 5,000 meters.

That is, it can reach the height of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau!

With the discharge speed of gas as high as several thousand meters per second, the turbo pump needs to face harsh working conditions such as strong vibration, noise and high pressure.

This requires its structural strength to be very strong, so the Inconel superalloy is used.

Of course, this is Zhang Xingyang's move and came up with a new high-temperature alloy production formula, otherwise it would take at least four or five years to study the material problem alone.

After completing the development of the turbo pump, in order to test the performance of the fuel pump.

In order to test how well it works, it needs to be combined with a gas generator for experiments.

In the experiment, the gas generator first started to work to generate high-pressure gas to drive the turbine, and the turbine drove two pumps to pressurize the liquid oxygen and kerosene flowing down from the storage tank respectively.

After boosting, most of the liquid oxygen and kerosene enter the combustion chamber, and a small part enters the gas generator, so that the gas generator regains high-pressure gas and continues to drive the turbine.

In this way, the cycle is repeated, and most of the gas is not wasted.

"Xing Yang, do you think this experiment will be successful?"

Geng Bo, who is mainly in charge of turbine design, was very nervous before the experiment started.

After all, this experiment is not only related to the painstaking efforts of hundreds of people in the research institute for such a long time, but also the experimental funds spent here are frighteningly high.

Take this experiment as an example, not counting the equipment problems in the experiment, the liquid oxygen kerosene consumed alone is a lot of money.

For this experiment, more than 400 tons of fuel and oxidizer were prepared. According to the current latest price, the combined price is close to 2 million.

Coupled with other various losses, it will cost three to four million yuan for this experiment.

If the experiment is successful, everything is fine.

If it fails.

Geng Bo didn't dare to think about the consequences.

Zhang Xingyang patted Geng Bo's shoulder and said relaxedly:

"Don't worry too much, don't worry too much if something goes wrong, it's better if the problem occurs on the ground test bench than on the launch site.

Besides, according to our system of technology zeroing, there will probably be no problems in this production. "

Geng Bo was comforted by Zhang Xingyang, and his whole body relaxed a little, and he was no longer so nervous. At least his two legs that had been shaking were calmed down.

At this time, the experimental control center has not yet applied the panoramic monitoring large screen.

Zhang Xingyang could only stand behind the bulletproof glass behind the test bench with Geng Bo to observe.

Of course, there are personnel connected to a heavier monitoring instrument panel on standby, ready to record various parameters during the operation of the gas generator-turbine pump at any time.

"Countdown!"

"Ten, nine, eight three,"

"two!"

"one!"

"ignition!"

"boom!!"

Hundreds of kilograms of fuel were instantly ignited, turned into high-pressure gas, and then sprayed out.

Like a blue and white sharp sword, shot out a distance of about ten meters!

Standing behind the bulletproof glass, Zhang Xingyang can still feel its vigorous power.

The entire experimental center was filled with the sound of various parameters being recorded one after another.

"The experiment is considered a success, now it's time to see how long it can work!"

Zhang Xingyang shouted loudly in Geng Bo's ear, the sound from the experiment outside is too loud, the communication in this room can only be done by roaring.

Geng Bo glanced at Zhang Xingyang, smiled happily, and said nothing.

At this time, the heart that was hanging in the air can finally be regarded as letting go.

The minimum requirement for this experiment is that the gas generator and turbo pump can work normally.

As for how long you can work, there are actually not many requirements. Even if you can only work for one second, it can prove that this road can be passed.

The next thing to do is to improve the service life of each component and try to increase its working time to the extent that it can complete the entire task.

Time passed quickly, and a hundred seconds passed quickly.

Zhang Xingyang gave the order to suspend the experiment before the parts persisted to the point of being scrapped.

The engineers and researchers who had been waiting for a long time immediately interrupted the liquid oxygen and kerosene delivery pipelines, and rushed to the test bench with various cooling equipment.

After the temperature of the test bench dropped, the engineers began to quickly disassemble the turbo pump.

The two pump bodies will be quickly brought back to the testing center in the research institute for metal damage analysis.

See how damaged the metal is.

Then the 200-second and 500-second experiments were performed next.

In fact, when the rocket is launched, as a first-stage engine, its working time is less than 200 seconds, which is about 186 seconds.

The fire that was enough to blind the eyes rushed again, but this time everyone's mood was much calmer.

After all, with the successful experience of the previous experiment, everyone still has great confidence in this experiment.

The second 200-second experiment went smoothly without any surprises.

In the entire control center of the test bed, everyone was full of confidence and began to bet on whether they could successfully pass the 500-second experiment.

"Xing Yang, do you think it's possible?" Geng Bo jokingly asked from the side, "Let's just say yes, I'll bet a hundred yuan that it can!"

Although Zhang Xingyang has strong confidence in this turbo pump, it is within his estimation.

Four hundred seconds is probably its limit working time, beyond this time even the high-temperature alloy with the metal "rhenium" still can't stand it.

Glancing at the confident Geng Bo, Zhang Xingyang smiled and said:

"I bet it can only last for four hundred seconds, I bet a thousand dollars!"