Chapter 415 Alternative Uses of Solar Furnace
The skill Chuang Wang wants to demonstrate to me is actually very simple, because this skill is called - dive.
That's right, diving into the sea like a submarine. Just after King Chuang's order was issued, the super carrier Ziri named after me behind us began to slowly advance and sink. Except for the navy personnel, the people standing on the deck were , almost everyone was dumbfounded. In fact, it's not just me who doesn't know that the new battleship has this ability, even Kristina doesn't know that our battleship has this ability. The navy has dedicated personnel responsible for its technology. If we were not a warship landing in the navy, we would not know these things at all, so we could say we knew nothing about it before.
"Is there any mistake?" Watching the Purple Sun slowly sinking, Kristina standing next to me almost had her eyes popping out. Such a large battleship is actually a submarine. Even normal people cannot understand this kind of thing. You must know that it is not impossible to make a submarine very big, but it does not need to be too big. In addition to adding a small amount of combat capability, giant submarines will also produce more side effects. Therefore, after the size is increased, the practical value of the submarine is not increased, but reduced, except for a few that are special due to special needs. For custom-made submarines, under normal circumstances, it is best to keep the tonnage of the submarine less than half of the main battleships currently in service. Because such submarines can play to their strengths.
We have never thought about the fact that the Purple Sun can dive before. Based on what I said before and King Chuang’s intention to demonstrate this ability, we can be sure that the Purple Sun is definitely not the only ship that can dive. That is to say. The entire first cruiser fleet here are all submarine warships that can dive.
When I recovered from the astonishing scene of the Purple Sun diving, the Purple Sun in front of me had basically completely entered the underwater navigation state. What we can see now is the Purple Sun’s sighting equipment and some of its antennas. Above the sea level, the main part of the battleship is actually completely underwater.
"How... is this done?" Seeing the Ziri being completely launched, I remembered to ask King Chuang why he had such a design.
Chuang Wang probably knew that I would ask this question, so he replied very readily: "Actually, it is not difficult at all to do this. You should know what abilities a submarine requires, right?"
I nodded and said, "It's pretty clear."
"Then tell me what abilities are needed?"
I thought for a while and said: "First of all, we need a sealed and strong shell to ensure that water does not enter, and it also needs to be able to withstand the pressure of the deep sea. Secondly, we need a propulsion system that can work without oxygen so that it can output normally under the water. Power. There must also be an underwater detection system such as sonar. Otherwise, you will be blind once you dive. Oh, by the way, you also need a pressure device and a water tank, so that you can control your own buoyancy through drainage and water injection to float up. and dive. It seems that the main part requires these things, and also requires some miscellaneous technologies. Anyway, there are quite a lot of things."
After hearing what I said, King Chuang immediately asked: "Okay, let's follow what you said. First of all, we need a sealed and strong shell. Our new warships are all made of high-quality steel and are formed in one piece over a large area, and the connecting parts are made of magic fusion agent. . Allowing the steel plates to be perfectly integrated into a whole, just like a whole casting. It is strong and sealed. It can be said that if we don’t want to leave an opening, we can completely make a fully sealed large stuffy tank. Therefore, we are only on the battleship Some adjustments have been made to all the hatches to increase their sealing and ensure that they can withstand the water pressure of the deep sea."
"So you came up with a completely sealed shell?"
Chuang Wang nodded and said: "Actually, it's not that simple, but it's basically like this. Also, let me tell you that our new armors have movable reinforcements. These things are usually in a decomposed state to increase the available space inside the ship. Locking connections can be made during wartime. On the one hand, the overall structural strength of the ship body is strengthened. On the other hand, specific areas can be closed in emergencies to ensure that the ship can still continue to submerge even if the hull shell is damaged, and there will be no water seepage or loss of pressure resistance. type of situation.”
The ability that Chuang Wang mentioned can be said to be very rare, because a large part of the submarine's pressure resistance actually comes from its shape. Just like eggs. An intact egg that has not been opened has a very strong resistance to pressure because its structure can disperse pressure. Ensure the overall integrity of the shell. It can even be said that pressure makes it strong. As long as the pressure at a single point does not have a particularly high peak area and the pressure can be evenly distributed, the pressure resistance of the egg even exceeds that of many metal components. Because if you use iron sheets of the same thickness to make a container as big as an egg, but instead of making it into the shape of an egg, it will be square. This container is definitely not as resistant to pressure as an egg.
Submarines have similar properties. If the structure is intact, the pressure generated by seawater will be shared by the structure, and ultimately the hull can withstand greater pressure than imagined. But once the submarine's structure is damaged, such as a big hole in the outer shell or something...then it's basically just waiting to die. A submarine that has lost its structural strength can only rely on its own hardness to resist water pressure, and will most likely be directly crushed in the end.
Unlike submarines, the Purple Sun uses a very special structure. It is first and foremost a sea surface battleship, so it does not need to rely on its outer shell to resist water pressure. Therefore it can be said that it has no water pressure resistance properties. However, because our designers added structural reinforcements to it, and also specially laid a magic circle, using magic power to protect the hull, thus ensuring its ability to withstand water pressure. In this way, our cutting-edge warship becomes a warship that can not only dive, but can also continue to dive after being injured.
"I'm now beginning to believe that it's really not that difficult to dive these boats."
King Chuang nodded immediately after hearing my words: "That's what I said. Our battleships use steel structures. Due to the special steel technology and the assistance of magic arrays, the hardness itself is already exaggerated. The thickness of the armor of these large battleships They are all calculated in meters. This thickness is absolutely beyond that of any submarine today, so there is no problem with our warships in terms of pressure resistance. As for underwater power... Boss, have you forgotten the use of our warships? What’s the motivation?”
The guild's battleship thrusters all use water jet thrusters from Atlantis. This kind of equipment does not need to burn anything at all, but directly uses magic energy, that is, magic crystal, as power drive. Then, since there is no need for combustion, there is no need for oxygen to support combustion, and naturally there is no need for gas exchange. In reality, submarines are not nuclear powered. Conventional submarines are equipped with two sets of power equipment, one diesel engine, which is used when sailing on the sea, or with the snorkel extended out of the sea for diesel-powered sailing in semi-submersible mode. Once it enters true submersible mode, the submarine uses electric motors. Not many battleships in the game themselves use mineral fuel. Although the thrusters used by our guild are not as good as those used by our guilds, in fact, guilds in various countries also have their own magic thrusters. These thrusters are basically powered by magic crystals. Of course, some impoverished guilds have strangely invented ways to use magicians instead of magic crystals as power, but that propulsion model can only be used as an economic model. You will definitely need to exchange the magic crystal for the battle. In other words, except for those that can be rowed with oars, the battleships in the game are either sailing ships or must be powered by magic. For these warships, it doesn't matter whether there is air or not, and they are not even afraid of water intruding the engine, because the magic thrusters are not mechanical thrusters at all, and those magic arrays are not afraid of water at all.
It is precisely because of this feature in the game. Therefore, the oxygen problem that plagues real-life submarines is almost non-existent for submarines in the game.
What? You ask how the personnel are breathing? Don't you know there is something called a knight's helmet?
In the game, because players are allowed to experience the fun of fighting in different environments, many helmets are equipped with underwater breathing apparatus functions. In addition, because the game "Zero" is very rational about everything, even the monsters in the wild are born from generation to generation, rather than directly refreshed, so this helmet must be able to provide oxygen underwater. There needs to be an explanation. So call. Almighty magic appears.
The knight's helmet can breathe underwater because it contains a special magic circle that can separate oxygen in the water. The prototype of this magic circle is the water absorption technique used by mages. We won’t discuss the principle of this water absorption technique. Anyway, such a magic is defined in the game, and there is a replica of the magic circle form. Then what our guild has to do is... Learn this kind of magic circle and then engrave it on certain specific locations inside the battleship. The entire submarine can then be supplied with oxygen.
Because of the existence of magic, the oxygen problem that is very troublesome in reality is almost not a problem in the game. Of course, this is for ourselves. If it is another guild, it will still take some effort. After all, the copying sub-subject of the magic circle is not as simple as copying a piece of paper. The magic circle actually has a very complicated design idea. Although our guild has a special magic circle printing machine that can produce magic arrays in batches, that kind of thing is actually a super high-end existence. I have never even heard of it, let alone manufacturing, in general guilds. Only a few guilds have the relevant technology in this area, but our guild is the only one that can truly print magic arrays in batches.
If you reason along this line of thinking. Our guild's cutting-edge warships are inherently capable of resisting water pressure, and with the water isolation barrier we got from Atlantis, the sealing problem is also very simple. Now coupled with the simple ability to obtain oxygen and the magic thruster that can work for a long time without oxygen, most of the necessary conditions for making a submarine have been met.
But... "How did you solve the water tank system?"
"Do we need to equip that kind of thing?" King Chuang's rhetorical question stunned me.
On the surface this question seems idiotic. How can a submarine solve the problem of diving and surfacing without a water tank? It can be said that in a submarine, except for the power part, most of the remaining space is occupied by the water tank and high-pressure air system used to change its own buoyancy. It can be said that this system is a very important component in the submarine. But...do we need our battleships?
The reason why this batch of cutting-edge warships need to be upgraded is because they are all equipped with solar furnaces. What is a solar furnace? This is an anti-gravity system! When it outputs power downward, it can make the warship fly up from the ground to counteract the gravity of gravity, and it can make the warship rise, fall or hover by changing the size of the power output. This control method is very simple, and the response speed is very fast, which can be said to be completely delay-free. However, many people fall into misunderstandings and think that this is just a power system that allows the warship to fly. They do not know that this system actually has no direction definition. In fact, the flying battleships in our guild all have independent jet thrusters. But they can actually sail without starting these thrusters, because the solar furnace itself is a sphere, and the direction of its power output can be changed at will in any direction in this three-dimensional space, and this output can be Instant reversal, that is, if we do not output thrust downward, but want to move upward. The battleship will not fly, but will sink. Because the huge pressure will force the battleship into the water like an invisible hand.
Precisely because of the existence of such abnormal equipment as solar furnaces, our warships do not need the water tanks and air pressure equipment in submarines at all. When our warships need to dive, we can directly output thrust upwards to make the warships sink. Instead, we need When floating up, as long as the power is gradually reduced, or simply reversed, the battleship can jump out of the water.
Speaking of which, I have to mention a technical feature of the solar furnace. The power output method of the solar furnace is very unique. Although the thrust it outputs is very powerful, it cannot quickly adjust the power, that is to say. It cannot burst out all its power in an instant and requires a slow adjustment process. The entire adjustment time for a solar furnace to go from outputting no power at all to extreme power is about seventy seconds. This time does not change due to changes in the size and total power of the solar furnace, but is a fixed value. In other words, no matter what type of solar furnace. It takes more than seventy seconds to accelerate to a rapid speed, and it also takes this long to reduce the power from the extreme state to zero.
However, although power adjustment takes time, the power output direction of the solar furnace can be strangely changed at will. It can even output all the power to the front one second, and then completely reverse it and output all the power to the rear the next second.
This variability in power direction is a good thing for improved maneuverability, but because power output cannot be controlled instantaneously, emergency stops are impossible. Therefore, solar furnaces face the same problems as Stirling engines in reality. Although its performance is very good, it cannot be used on most devices. For example, even if we equip a flying battleship with a solar furnace, we still need to install an additional jet thruster because the solar furnace itself cannot accelerate or shut down instantly. It can only rely on auxiliary power to achieve rapid acceleration or emergency stop. Of course, the solar furnace can also complete the deceleration by itself. After all, it only needs to reverse the direction of the power. However, this method is not suitable for the needs of general navigation. On the battlefield You can also consider dodging cannonballs. If the power suddenly reverses during actual navigation, it will definitely cause all unprepared crew members to rush into the street.
Based on the above situation, solar furnaces are only suitable for large equipment such as battleships. Because the inertial momentum of these big guys is very huge, basically from the beginning of the design, they were not expected to be like small birds. It also dances in the sky, so the problem of solar furnace's inability to output power and delayed response can be avoided. Moreover, because the large equipment itself has a large space, there is extra space to install a second set of power equipment, thus ensuring that these big guys can accelerate or decelerate rapidly if necessary. As for small devices...don't even think about it. Firstly, it is difficult to miniaturize solar furnaces, and secondly, it is very unsafe. The working method of the solar furnace determines that once it explodes, its power will be equivalent to that of a large-yield liquefied magic crystal steam bomb. The self-destruction power of this thing is basically the same as that of a small nuclear weapon. The battle damage rate of large equipment is low, so there is no problem in installing these things, but if we even install this thing on small equipment like Mobile Angel... it would be hilarious. Of course, the main reason for not installing it is that the power characteristics of the solar furnace are really not suitable for small equipment, especially things on land. After all, there are many obstacles on the ground, unlike the sea or sky where there is so much space for you to slow down, so you can't do it. The power equipment that adjusts power instantly has no other possibility except crashing on the ground. Unless you only move in the plains or desert.
In any case, our new warships are all equipped with solar furnaces. Although they are prohibited from flying due to confidentiality considerations, there is no problem in submersible navigation. Even if the fleets of other countries see our warships diving, they will only think that we are equipped with diving devices and will not associate them with the flight function at all. Therefore, this application method does not affect our confidentiality plan at all.
King Chuang could tell by looking at my expression that I had already figured it out, so he started to introduce directly: "So, our battleship has the basic conditions for submersible, and because there is detection magic, we can detect us underwater. It can also be done. Also, because these battleships originally had the diving function in mind, all the places where water cannot enter are treated with Atlantis-type waterproof barriers, including gun barrels and the like. Water. Also, haven’t you noticed that this new battleship is very round in appearance?”
Even if King Chuang doesn’t tell me, I really haven’t noticed. This time, the new battleships seem to have the characteristics of aircraft in shape, which means aerodynamic issues have been taken into consideration. Because the speed of previous warships was not very fast, fluid mechanics were basically not considered in the parts above the water surface, as long as the resistance in the underwater parts was not large. However, this new cutting-edge warship can not only fly, but also dive. Therefore, even the parts above the waterline are made to incorporate hydrodynamic principles as much as possible to ensure that the warship has a good dynamic shape in both submersible and flight modes.
"I have to say that I am quite satisfied with this design." I looked at the Ziri, which was slowly ascending after demonstrating its diving capabilities, and said to King Chuang next to me: "Then, this mission will be left to you. Give it to me Sneak outside the guild's port and surface, I want to give them a big surprise."
When King Chuang heard my words, he knew that I had agreed to their request to carry out this mission, so he immediately shouted excitedly: "I promise to complete the mission."
"Don't get carried away. You must be careful in this mission. Revenge against the British guild is just to show our strength. I don't want to start a war with the whole of Europe right now. If you cause us international disputes, you can Don’t blame me for throwing you into the river fleet.”
"No, no, I will definitely be careful and I will never do anything I shouldn't do." King Chuang was really scared now. A place like the River Fleet could suffocate people to death, and he would not go there even if he was beaten to death. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation.)