On February 11, Yan Wengang won the bronze medal in the men's steel frame bobsleigh at the National Bobsleigh Center "Snow Tour Dragon", which is the first time that a Chinese athlete has taken the Winter Olympic podium in the event.
On February 14, Huai Mingming and Ying Qing ranked sixth and ninth in the women's singles bobsleigh final, creating a new breakthrough in China's women's snowmobile event.
On February 15, the Chinese duo of Sun Kaizhi and Wu Qingze finished 14th in the doubles snowmobile final, creating the best record of the Chinese delegation at the Winter Olympics.
Behind the historic breakthroughs made by Chinese ice and snow athletes in unpopular projects, it is inseparable from China's first world-class "Snow Dragon" track and the scientific research team behind it, helping Olympic athletes spell out China's speed.
Since the start of the Winter Olympic Games, China's "Snow Dragon" track has won the praise of various Olympic participants.
The track circling in Yanqing is the first bobsleigh track in China and the third in Asia, with a total length of 1975 meters, a maximum gradient of 18 degrees, and a vertical drop of 121 meters, like a "snow dragon" hovering in the mountains.
Ivo Feriani, President of the International Snowmobile Federation of the International Olympic Committee, commented on the Snow Dragon as the best bobsleigh venue in the world. "You don't have to doubt that with what I know about venues around the world, snow dragons are the best."
The main circuit of "Snow Dragon" is divided into 54 refrigeration units, with a total of 16 corners and 54 track segments of different shapes, of which the 11th corner is a unique 360-degree swing in the world, which has reached the international top level in terms of the number of corners, track length and competition difficulty.
Built on a ridge, the snow dragon's refrigeration equipment installation skills are quite skilled. In order to continuously inject refrigerant into the body of the "ice dragon" and realize the circulatory flow in the body of the "dragon" to ensure that the ice does not melt, scientific researchers and engineering and technical personnel have overcome unimaginable difficulties on the winding track, and welded more than 10,000 refrigeration tubes section by section, which makes the "snow dragon" become an "ice dragon".
In order to ensure the temperature control requirements of each corner and each area, the researchers installed remote sensing equipment for the track, which can monitor the concrete temperature of the track in real time and adjust the cooling load to meet the normal operation of the bobsleigh project when the ambient temperature is higher.
After the "Snow Dragon" became an ice dragon, the level of ice surface of the track was another technical difficulty.
As the fastest event in the Winter Olympics, bobsleigh is known as ice F1, and the fastest speed of the track can reach 140 km /h. In order to ensure the speed and safety of athletes, the International Olympic Committee has strict requirements for the thickness of the ice surface of the track, and the error cannot exceed 5 mm.
In order to create the highest quality ice surface in the world, "Snow Dragon", like "Ice Ribbon", has a team with high ice making skills, which can be called the ice national team, which needs to continuously spray hundreds of layers of extremely thin water mist, and form a 50 mm thick ice layer on a track with a total length of 1.9 kilometers, and the error cannot exceed plus or minus 5 mm.
During the Winter Olympics, after each late night competition, the ice national team of "Snow Dragon" began intensive track maintenance work. According to the athlete's sliding trajectory and ice damage, they repaired and replenished the ice in time, filled in the depression with excess ice, and then repaired it with a shovel with an ice blade, and finally formed a smooth ice surface.
In addition, because the "Snow Dragon" is built on the south slope, the track during the day is affected by the sunshine time, the intensity of the sunshine and the surface temperature, which can easily cause the ice surface of the track to become soft. In order to solve this problem, protect the ice surface of the track, and minimize energy consumption, researchers have developed a unique "terrain climate protection system", which uses terrain, awning, windshield backs, and sun blinds to effectively reduce solar radiation.
During the Winter Olympics, "Snow Dragon" won the praise of athletes from all over the world, IOC President Bach repeatedly gave a thumbs up to praise "the world's first-class venues", and Chinese bobsleigh athletes also staged speed and passion here.
Behind this track, why didn't the researchers and engineering technicians overcome the difficulties and challenges and spell out the Chinese speed on the Olympic field?
Source: Thoughtful Shanghai