It takes eight or nine months to work for a weld
In more than a month, a total of 13 dives were completed, 8 of which exceeded 10,000 meters.
The record of 10,909 meters has given mankind a new coordinate in the field of deep manned deep diving.
The "Struggle" all-sea deep manned submersible allowed the world to see the strength of China's manned deep diving.
And behind this glory, what kind of story does the Struggler have?
The Yangtze Evening News/Ziniu News reporter walked into the China Shipbuilding Institute 702 in Wuxi yesterday to find out.
Yangtze Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Zhang Jianbo
Deep dive
10909 meters!
In the early morning of November 10th, the Struggle carrying 3 submariners was slowly launched from the "Discovery One" mother ship hangar, and the sling was steadily lifted into the water. Nearly 4 hours later, the Struggle Successfully sat on the bottom and dived to a depth of 10,909 meters, setting a new record for China's manned deep diving and reaching the world's leading level.
At about 8:30 on November 28, a whistle sounded, and the Struggle completed the second phase of the sea trial and returned successfully.
Explore
"The Fourth Pole of the Earth"
The Mariana Trench is called the "fourth pole of the earth". It has high water pressure and complete darkness. It is one of the harshest areas on the earth. Its deepest point is about 11,000 meters, which is equivalent to the height of Mount Everest superimposed on Mount Hua.
The Struggle allowed China to reach the commanding heights of global deep-sea equipment and technology. For the first time, the Chinese also came to the abyss of the earth where “there are fewer people than those who have reached the moon”.
What is the concept of 10909 meters?
10 meters
The depth that ordinary people can dive to without carrying diving equipment
113 meters
Naked diving record set by a French diver
332 meters
The deepest record of a person diving after using a scuba
10909 m
The water pressure exceeds 110 MPa, which is equivalent to 2,000 African elephants stepping on a person’s back
Deep sea travel
1. Deployment
The "Struggle" was transferred to the sea from the "Exploration One" scientific research ship
2. Dive
The frogman team helped the submersible to be unhooked, the submersible was injected into the water, and the first group of ballast iron was thrown away when it approached the seabed to reach an equilibrium state suspended in the water
3. Sit on the bottom
Taking into account the speed reading, attitude and seabed geology of the submersible, let the Struggle land artificially on the seabed
4. Cruise operation
Shooting operations and cruises on the sea floor, while collecting ocean floor environmental data
5. Throwing and floating
Throw two pieces of ballast iron and start to float; the buoyant material on the outer layer of the submersible will also provide enough buoyancy for the submersible
6. Recycling
Through operations such as frogman landing and hoisting, the Struggle returned to the embrace of the mother ship
In 2012, the 7000-meter-class manned submersible "Jiaolong" was launched, setting a world record for the diving depth of 7062 meters of similar manned submersibles.
In 2017, the 4500-meter-class "Deep Sea Warrior" manned submersible made a breakthrough, achieving "autonomous key technology and localized key equipment"
Since July 2020, the Struggle has completed a total of 30 dives, 8 of which exceeded 10,000 meters
Sea trials show "acceleration"
The "Jiaolong" has been used for 10 years from the project to the sea, the "Deep Sea Warrior" has been used for 8 years, and the "Struggle" has been used for 4 years.
The localization rate exceeds 96.5%
According to relevant national regulations, the localization rate of "Struggle" exceeds 96.5%. More importantly, it has achieved a historic leap from integrated innovation to independent innovation.
The Growth Manual of the Struggle
A The most critical components developed by nearly a hundred units in the past 5 years were installed in Wuxi
As a full-sea deep manned submersible with independent intellectual property rights in China, the "Struggle" is led by China Shipbuilding 702. Nearly a thousand scientific researchers from nearly 100 scientific research institutes, universities, and enterprises have gone through hard work. It took more than 4 years to develop and complete.
Among them, Wuxi, as the resident city of China Shipbuilding Institute 702, has nearly 30 enterprises and scientific research units participating.
According to reports.
The core manned cabin of the Struggle is formed by welding two hemispheres. The integral stamping of the hemispherical shell and the welding of the hemispheres into a whole are all done by local enterprises in Wuxi.
At the same time, after the welding is completed, residual stress testing and non-destructive testing of the weld should be carried out to ensure that the welding can meet the requirements. The organization that finalizes the "qualified seal" is also Wuxi.
Like the previous "Jiaolong" and "Deep Sea Warrior", the key components of the "Struggle" were also installed in Wuxi.
As a strong manufacturing city, Wuxi has always been an active participant and main force in China's manned submersible development, construction and manned submersibles.
"The three submersibles were all born in Wuxi, and the leaders of Wuxi City and Binhu District are paying special attention." What is rare is that the team behind the "Struggle" is a group of young people with an average age of over 30.
"From the "Fall Dragon" to the "Deep Sea Warrior" to the "Struggle", it has gone through 20 years. It has always been supported by old comrades. Young people are on the front line, constantly updating our technology and innovating our results." China Ship Seven Said Ye Cong, director of the 02 and chief designer of the "Struggle".
B. Worked for a weld for eight or nine months to ensure the safety of the manned cabin
The safety and reliability of the spherical manned cabin is the top priority of the Struggle.
Initially, it was not easy to find the material for the manned cabin spherical shell suitable for the 10,000-meter deep sea ultra-high pressure (more than 1,100 times the standard atmospheric pressure) and low temperature (0℃-2℃) environment. At that time, all titanium alloy materials could not meet the requirements. .
When the material was found and the hemispherical stamping was completed, another thorny question appeared: Can the welding process work?
Can the weld pass?
The material selection of the manned cabin determines its welding process requirements are extremely high and difficult.
According to the "convention", the team prepared two pairs of semi-circular spherical shells to make the manned cabin.
However, the non-destructive inspection of the weld after the first welding found that the pressure-bearing performance of the weld did not meet the requirements. “The performance of the weld must be consistent with other complete parts, otherwise it will be a major safety issue.” The problem is very fast. It was found out that the crux of the problem was the craftsmanship.
The team believes that there is no problem that cannot be solved, and it has to "cross the river by feeling the stones".
Re-verification and improvement of the process. After eight or nine months of hard work, it finally broke through the special welding process of high-strength and high-toughness titanium alloy materials. It was the first time in the world to apply this kind of technology to successfully complete the hemispherical equatorial seam welding at one time. The welding quality met the technical indicators. Claim.
Finally, through the operation on another spherical shell, the safety performance requirements were successfully met.
C New solid buoyancy material guarantees "fast up and down"
Compared with the Deep Sea Warrior, the subsea operation time of the Struggle was doubled to 6 hours.
Although the time is equivalent to that of the "Jiaolong", the work efficiency is greatly improved.
All this is due to the realization of the "Quick Up and Down" of the "Struggle".
And this is first attributed to a new type of solid buoyant material.
The development team believes that the 10,000-meter manned submersible must not only dive deep, but also be able to come up safely.
In the ultra-high pressure environment, new solid buoyancy materials that can withstand the pressure of 10,000 meters of sea depth are required.
A solid buoyancy material standard block with high strength and low density under ultra-high pressure conditions of 10,000 meters deep sea helped a lot.
At the same time, due to the systematic solution of the special control technology and other problems in the bonding process of buoyancy materials, the Struggle achieved the design goal of increasing the payload and reducing the external dimensions, laying the foundation for "fast up and down".
In addition, thanks to a 100-kilowatt-hour "full-sea deep lithium battery pack."
In view of the long-term operation of the Struggle in the 10,000-meter deep environment, the battery pack independently developed by China has greatly increased the underwater operation time of the submersible.
The deep-sea world is "Wonderful"
Customized for "Abyss" to experience the shock of the deep sea
During this sea trial, when interviewed by CCTV, a member of the sea trial team said, "The abyss of ten thousand meters is wonderful."
"This time, it is the first time for the Chinese to personally experience the shock brought to us by the 10,000-meter seabed." A team member said, everyone is very excited, because this is the Chinese independent design and breakthrough of various technologies. Such a state.
For the 10,000-meter "Abyss" to be visited this time, the "Struggle" has also made sufficient preparations.
According to reports, most of the 10,000-meter "deep" area is a sea trench. On both sides of the trench are special creatures, different terrains, etc., which are both "indescribable" and a complex environment.
At the beginning of the project, the development team made sufficient data analysis for the environmental characteristics of the "Abyss", including pressure parameters, seawater density, water temperature, and salinity.
On this basis, the design parameters of the submersible are determined, and then the preparation and construction of various facility components are guided according to the parameters. "Like batteries, we need to consider low-temperature environment and high-pressure conditions. Many designs are specifically designed for This challenge of extreme depth."
More and more "comfortable" from bringing dry food to eating egg fried rice
"Generally speaking, the space in the cab is still that big, but the comfort level is already very high." As the elder of the team, Hu Zhen, chief designer of the Deep Sea Warrior and deputy chief designer of the Struggle, told The reporter, as the boss of the three submersibles, he introduced that through the system transformation and optimization of the manned cabin, the operators are more convenient and comfortable in operation.
Specifically, the seat angle has been adjusted to make the sitting posture of the operator more comfortable.
At the same time, the "decoration color" of the interior was adjusted to relieve the fatigue caused by long-term work.
"Especially the re-layout and optimization of the human-computer interaction system greatly facilitated various operations and made deep-sea operations easier. In the past, we carried dry food, such as bread and fruit, to the sea. Now we can eat egg fried rice and fried noodles." In addition, another major interference-noise is also greatly reduced, which basically does not affect normal work.
"Strong" and "squeaky", the hatch can't even get dusty
Although the sea trial also encountered severe weather such as typhoons and the place it went to was an extremely complicated environment, overall, the "Struggler" performed very well, with some minor malfunctions, which were quickly resolved.
This is mainly due to the design of the "Fighter" and the addition of the concept of "fault isolation"-for minor problems that do not affect the overall task of the entire task, it can be isolated and handled as a "firewall".
In fact, the Struggle also has a "squeaky" side.
For example, the cover of the manned cabin is very "gold and precious."
The hatch cover is the only active area of the manned cabin. If there is a problem with the sealing, it will inevitably lead to terrible disasters.
For this reason, every member of the team is very careful when entering and exiting. Even the cloth hat cannot be touched. "The hatch cover is carefully wiped clean, for fear that a dust of contamination will affect the sealing."
Zhang Jianbo