February 9, Republic 2774 (1933), Southern Indian Ocean.

Today is the Lantern Festival.

During the Spring Festival this year, the Chinese people had a very happy time, and the promotion of game consoles and online learning machines made the people's entertainment more abundant. But some people don't enjoy all the excitement.

Located in the southwest of Australia, far from the main shipping routes and far from the fishing areas, this area is not here except for some research vessels or vessels with a special purpose. At this time, there is a large submarine floating on this ocean.

It was a pear-shaped submarine with no gunwale, no markings, and an unknown nationality. This is a Beluga-class nuclear-powered attack submarine that has never been seen in public in a mysterious model.

The submarine, the fourth Beluga-class "long-beaked whale" (the first three being a beluga, narwhal and mallet), was completed in September last year and is still in the process of sea trials.

"Report the captain, according to the data link, there are no ships and planes within 300 kilometers of us. The intelligence non-commissioned officer reported to the captain.

He Qixing nodded and said, "According to our current closest landmark, where is it?"

"It's the island of Amsterdam, a French Indian Ocean territory, in the direction of us at 4 o'clock, about 270 kilometers away. The island currently has no permanent population, and no signs of human activity have been found from high-altitude reconnaissance. ”

"Okay, keep the data link connected, and release the drone to guard the ...... nearby" After He Qixing gave the order, he said to the assistant captain: "The safety level is temporarily determined to be green, and all the personnel can take turns to go on the deck for activities, divided into three batches, each batch for half an hour." Arrange for the expert group to go to the first ......"

"Yes, Captain......"

A rapid jet sounded "bang ......", and a round pillar suddenly erupted from a round hole in the long-beaked whale's conning tower towards the port side. It's not a missile or a torpedo or anything, it's just a drone.

The pillar flew out more than thirty meters and cracked, and the drone inside was exposed, and then the wing of the drone bounced off, and a flame erupted to the back, and it rushed out at once. The shells on both sides sink into the sea after a few churns, a biodegradable plastic shell that automatically decomposes once exposed to seawater for up to three months.

The booster rocket on the drone does not work for long, but as soon as the engine of the drone starts working, this booster rocket automatically drops. A few seconds later, a strange-looking drone with a wingspan of more than two meters began to circle the submarine, this drone looked a bit like the X-fighter in "Star Wars", the two pairs of wings were crossed, the propeller was behind, and the propulsion type.

After circling a few times, it climbed towards a high place and began to take the submarine as the center of the circle, and watch over it. This UAV is configured from the second batch, and the UAVs of the Long-beaked Whale are not the same, the Long-beaked Whale is launched from a special launch tube on the conning tower, and the Mallet is launched through a torpedo tube. This arrangement is obvious, and it is to verify which one is better. The first batches of the Moby Dick class were highly experimental in nature.

In the command room of the long-beaked whale, several non-commissioned officers are busy in front of the drone console.

"No. 01 is in place, the engine is working normally, the electromagnetic wave detector is working normally, the optical camera is working normally, the infrared detector is working normally, the early warning program is on, and the automatic driving state ......"

After the drone entered the automatic driving state, several people operating the drone breathed a sigh of relief. The sergeant in the lead couldn't help but say: "Hey, captain, our drone is very easy to use, but if you use it once, you will be reimbursed for one, it is really heart-wrenching to use, as soon as I think of my fingers, I will smash out three thousand oceans, and my heart is bleeding......"

Another sailor also said: "This drone is really, it is more expensive than a real plane, and the socialist pesticide machine in our village was only bought for 650 yuan, but this drone costs 3,000 oceans." ”

"Phew, why isn't a drone a real plane!" "This drone is an advanced technology, I don't know how much more advanced than the pesticide machine in your village, can something more than 20 years ago be compared with something that came out last year? Your drones are too expensive, what should the torpedo team say? A torpedo is tens of thousands of dollars......

"Ah, can't you find a way to recycle it?"

"I also asked...... "Guess what they say? They said that drones used in submarines are much more expensive if they use a recyclable model, and they have to add a set of recovery devices." It's not as cheap as this one-time one, anyway, there is a self-destruct device on it, so you don't have to worry about others picking it up......"

One soldier said, "Can you add a fishing net, the drone will come back and hit the net, like a trap net?" That way, even if you break the wing fuselage, you can always recover some parts inside......"

He Qixing patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Hey, young man, you have a good idea." Let's go back and study it again, do an experiment, and if it's feasible, we can give advice to the higher-ups......"

"But this time it may not work, our mission this time is to conduct various tests on the submarine, and I don't think there will be this time until the project is completed. ”

"But we only have eight drones, and now we have half of them......"

"It's okay, we'll be able to rendezvous with the supply ship tomorrow. ”

At this time, more than 500 kilometers away from the long-beaked whale, a scientific research fleet is heading to the South Pole. This fleet is called "Antarctic Star 1", which is a fleet sent by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to Antarctica for scientific investigations, which is a very complete scientific research fleet, they not only landed in Antarctica, and established an Antarctic research station, but also to carry out hydrological research work in the southern Indian Ocean, such as climate, marine resources research, mapping of seabed topography or something......

This is the first time that China has organized a scientific expedition to Antarctica, and the scientific community has expressed great appreciation for it. It's not too much to send a submarine over to protect such a meaningful work, isn't it? As for why the different routes, that's another question, and that's because we're using the wrong map.

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"Bang dang...... The watertight door on the deck was opened, and a group of sailors in navy blue uniforms excitedly came out....... Behind them were several men in civilian clothes.

"It's been stuffy in for a month......"

"Whew, I can finally breathe fresh air......"

"I haven't smelled the smell of the sea for a month, and I blame the nostalgic ......"

As soon as they got to the deck, they couldn't help but take a few deep breaths. The long-beaked whale dived underwater for a month, during which time it did not surface once. Of course, it can be played like this, that is, there are only nuclear submarines, and it is impossible for conventionally powered submarines to hold it for so long, not to mention that the long-beaked whale has been diving at a high speed of more than 20 knots this month.

In fact, nuclear submarines can theoretically hold underwater for as long as they want, as long as there is no failure, the key is that people can't hold it for so long.

"Actually, it's not so exaggerated, in fact, it's a psychological effect. According to the test, the air quality inside the submarine is better...... "When everyone was happy, a young man with glasses said very uninterestingly: "When we designed this class of submarine, we took into account the problem of long-term underwater operation, and we added a complete set of equipment specially used for air quality control, which can automatically adjust the content of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other components in the air and the concentration of negative ions, and can also automatically remove dust and odor in the air......"

Your sister's psychological effect! Everyone rolled their eyes when they heard these remarks, and you said that the air below was good, and what were you doing in a hurry?

The man said calmly: "I said it all, this is a psychological problem. Although there is no problem with the results of the analysis on the instrument, I just feel that the air outside is better psychologically, and I am certainly no exception......"

"My sons are all good for themselves, so in Vice President Huang's opinion, this beluga whale level must be excellent, and the air inside is needless to say......" A thin expert next to him said with a smile.

"Hey, Jiang Gong, don't just talk about others, the nuclear power system on this submarine is also your product......" An expert next to him also said.

The nuclear power engineer named Jiang Chen smiled: "Our electrical system hasn't dropped the chain at all along the way......

"What are you kidding, if something goes wrong with your thing, it's going to be in trouble......"

"Hahahaha......" everyone laughed happily. All of them are experts sent by the designers of this submarine and the relevant units of the subsystem to the site, and this submarine is more or less related to them.

At this time, Jiang Chen's eyes suddenly lit up, and he found that the shell of this submarine projected a blue brilliance under the sunlight, like a porcelain brilliance. He hurriedly squatted down and touched the deck and then the conning tower, and couldn't help but be amazed: "What is the material of this submarine's hull? After three months of diving in the sea, there is no sign of rust on the hull. ”

"Yes, the materials used for the hulls of this batch of submarines are different from the previous ones, and the Z110 steel plate was used before. This material is theoretically non-rusty. The vice president Huang raised his eyes, and his tone was full of pride. His name is Huang Zhenzhong, a native of Guangdong, who graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University after the founding of the People's Republic of China and is the deputy chief designer of the first generation of nuclear submarines.

"It's not stainless steel, but the color is not right, it doesn't look like paint, it looks like a blued natural color...... one of the experts also touched the shell.

"yes, I remember when we got on the boat, it was still silver-gray, why is it changing color now? Oxidation? What kind of metal is this? Look at this color, is it copper?"

Several experts were curious, and they couldn't help but touch it casually. When they started on board, they didn't pay attention to this detail.

"Hahaha, don't guess, it's a brand new alloy that you can't have seen before. Huang Zhenzhong smiled proudly.

"Vice President Huang, let's talk about this kind of specific physical and chemical data, I see if we can use it over there?" an expert grabbed him and asked. This is an engineer from Beihang and the equipment provider of the drone. He was keenly aware of the potential benefits of this alloy.

"It's about the same properties as titanium, but it's more workable and cheaper. I'm sorry, but there are confidentiality regulations, and that's all I can say. If the higher authorities think you need something like this, they will let you know. ”

"It's about the same as titanium, it's more workable and cheaper. The Beihang engineer's eyes were green.

The Beaked Whale and its sister Hammer Whale are also very different from their predecessors in that their shells are made of different materials. The second batch of Moby Dick class hulls uses a completely new material.

In fact, this is iron and aluminum alloy, a material that has been rotten on the street after more than a hundred years in the original time and space. Iron and aluminum have their own advantages and disadvantages, if they can be combined to form an alloy then it is a very distinctive material, someone has thought about this idea a long time ago, but the melting point of the two is very different, the specific gravity is also much different, and it is difficult to affinity, so there is no fruit for a long time, until the beginning of the 21st century, it can only be made in a small amount in the laboratory.

Later, with the development of smelting technology, some people tried to mix the pure iron solution with a carbon content of less than 1/10,000 with pure aluminum liquid by electromagnetic stirring and mechanical stirring, and when the solid-liquid mixed state was formed, it was repeatedly kneaded with a press to prevent the iron and aluminum from forming grains, and finally a stable iron-aluminum alloy was obtained. New additive elements, vanadium, nickel and several rare earth elements, have been found, which can greatly reduce the friction during stirring and make iron and aluminum better combined. Later, after trial and error, the most stable ratio of the two principal component metals was obtained, which is the famous "golden section" 372:618. What's more, the ratio of iron and aluminum is the most stable upside down, so that a pair of "conjugated alloys" is obtained, and their thermal expansion coefficients are also extremely close, and they can be welded and bonded well. Iron accounts for about 5 of the specific gravity of the bulk of the A alloy. 825, the proportion of aluminum in the majority of B alloy is about 4. 57。

However, even by this time, although it had become a stable alloy, its properties were completely unexpected, and it did not retain the advantages of both, except that it would produce a dense oxide layer like aluminum. The density is greater than that of aluminum, and the physical and chemical indicators such as hardness, strength, and corrosion resistance are far inferior to those of traditional aluminum alloys...... That's right, it's about the same thing as a half-track.

This extremely poor alloy is considered to be worthless garbage. Mankind has made countless alloys in history, but the real value is less than one percent of the total, it is nothing more than the addition of a junk alloy, nothing remarkable.

Ten years later, someone invented a new heat treatment process for more hanging, which is irradiation hardening. So they heated the parts of different materials to different temperatures, and then used different radiation sources to irradiate them at different times and at different doses. When they experimented with garbage-like iron and aluminum alloys, they got an amazing thing. After this thing is heated to a certain temperature and then irradiated, there is a "micro-collapse of atoms".

The phenomenon of extrusion between atoms has caused it to change dramatically. The size of the parts has shrunk by about one percent, and the density has increased by about three percent, but the strength, hardness and high-temperature strength of the alloy have been greatly improved, the strength and hardness of alloy A exceed that of titanium alloy, alloy B and titanium alloy are comparable, and the high-temperature strength is slightly lower than that of titanium alloy, but higher than that of stainless steel, and the most important thing is that its welding performance is well retained. And because the atomic structure is denser, acids and alkalis cannot penetrate its surface, making it extremely corrosion-resistant, which is completely comparable to expensive titanium alloys. This guy has turned the ugly duckling of iron and aluminum alloy into a white swan, and has jumped from garbage to the mainstream alloy material in society.

Smelting is the old business of Wen Desi before he crossed, and he has memorized the performance parameters and production process of this alloy, but there is no condition in the past few years, and there is no way to copy it. Although the principle of this thing is simple, the related pre-treatment, mixing, smelting and post-heat treatment equipment are not able to solve the problem of the industry in the early 20th century. It wasn't until the year before last that the relevant technology trees were in place, and only then did they begin to make new alloys and new materials that would be rotten in later generations.

This alloy is not only much cheaper than titanium alloy, but more importantly, its processing cost is much lower than that of titanium alloy. The price of titanium alloy products is so expensive, and a large part of it is in the processing fee. The processing of iron-aluminum alloy is extremely easy, it is extremely soft and easy to process before it is formed and irradiated, and then the hardness of the strength immediately increases after irradiation, the scale is reduced by 1%, and the proportion increases by 3%. It is even possible to use existing processing equipment to process blanks into plates, pipes, and even square pipes and special-shaped pipes of various specifications and shapes that are required, and can also be pre-bent into various shapes and then irradiated and strengthened. As long as the thickness and width of the size are enlarged by one hundredth. The same is true for other machined and die-cast parts, as long as the dimensions are controlled, the finished product is irradiated and ready for use.

The specific gravity of this alloy is also close to that of titanium alloy, and inherits the non-magnetic characteristics of aluminum, which can be said to be an ultra-cheap titanium alloy, and its benefits are incalculable once widely used. Especially for naval vessels, high strength, non-magnetism, corrosion resistance and small specific gravity are extremely rare performances. The woolly bear in the original time and space played with titanium alloy submarines, and it was not all titanium alloy, but later found out that it was really expensive, so I had to stop playing. And with iron-aluminum alloys, China can play "all-titanium submarines".

In addition, these characteristics of it are also of great significance for the army's combat vehicles, vehicles, artillery, air force aircraft, airships, if there is no such cheap thing, where dare to imagine using all-titanium alloy to build combat vehicles and ships.

And its value in civilian terms is even more incalculable. One of the great enemies of steel materials is corrosion, although human beings spend a lot of money to use paint, plastic, oil, chrome, galvanized, tin and other anti-rust means, but every year there are still tens of millions of tons of steel turned into rust, not only that, accidents and even disasters caused by rust are also common. Stainless steel does not solve the fundamental problem, its strength is too low, the cost is too high, especially the processing performance is not very good, resulting in a relatively narrow range of applications.

The iron-aluminum alloy is completely different, if the iron-aluminum alloy is widely used in shipbuilding, industrial pipelines and other fields that need corrosion resistance, then the performance is incomparable. Think about the all-titanium ship, the picture is too beautiful to see.

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PS: Well, this kind of thing is the sci-fi alloy "porcelain steel" that appeared in Weihuada's "Awakening Lion". However, it is said that the strength is twice as high as that of titanium alloy, and its price is only one-tenth of that of titanium alloy, but it cannot be mass-produced. In addition, there is a practical iron-aluminum alloy, but it is used for motors and cables, instead of copper.