The land of Lingnan in March is lush and full of life.
After a burst of spring rain, the reporter drove to Xinlong Town, Huangpu District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province.
"Look there, big tires!"
Someone in the car shouted. In the distance, there is a uniquely shaped building, like two giant tires. They are both vertical and horizontal, standing and lying down, with silver facades like wheels and dark glass like wheels.
The picture shows the Aviation Tire Science Center. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
"This is the world's second and the country's first flight take-off and landing kinetic device. Wang Jie, vice president of the Guangdong Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Huangpu Materials Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as the "Huangpu Materials Institute"), told reporters that here, researchers not only have to develop China's own aviation tires, but also repeatedly test the use limits of aviation tires to ensure their safety and reliability.
Manufacturing: Biomimetic synthetic rubber breaks through geographical constraints
Coming to the vicinity of the "big tire", Wang Jie introduced that the two giant "tires" have different functions and design styles.
The 52-meter-tall "vertical tire" is majestic, the "horizontal tire" is only 23.45 meters high, but the 90-meter horizontal diameter makes it quite imposing, and behind it is a hard-core technology center that gathers advanced technology. They complement each other and together form the Aviation Tire Science Center.
When an airplane soars into the sky, it needs the tires under its feet to help it, and a smooth landing of the plane is also inseparable from the cushioning escort of solid tires.
"Different from the production of automobile tires, the manufacture of aviation tires is difficult in one word!" Wang Jie stressed, "first of all, extreme temperature changes, aviation tires have to withstand the severe test from minus 40 degrees Celsius to minus 70 degrees Celsius; moreover, the moment the plane lands, aviation tires must withstand the impact force of more than dozens of tons." ”
Because of this, aviation tires are likened to "shoes for airplanes", and the manufacturing process is extremely complex, becoming the "crown jewel" in the field of tire manufacturing.
For a long time, the raw materials and core technologies of Continental aviation tires have been subject to foreign countries, and aviation tires used in civil aviation aircraft can only be rented from abroad.
Where are the bottlenecks in aerospace tire manufacturing, and how do we break through?
With questions, the reporter walked into the "big tire" to find out.
In the exhibition center, the first thing that caught the reporter's eye was two pieces of rubber. The dark color is natural smoke sheet rubber, known as "black gold", which is the key raw material for the production of aviation tires, and the light color is the bionic synthetic rubber that has high hopes.
The main production area of natural rubber is in Southeast Asia, and the mainland's dependence on natural rubber is very high. In the face of geographical restrictions, mainland scientists have found another way - to develop biomimetic synthetic rubber.
By imitating the fine structure of natural tobacco rubber, they cleverly embedded proteins and phospholipids in the molecular chain of synthetic rubber, achieving a major breakthrough in biomimetic rubber synthesis technology and preparing mass-produced biomimetic synthetic rubber.
"At present, the key performance indicators of biomimetic synthetic rubber have reached the level of imported high-grade natural rubber. Yang Xiaoniu, director of the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of the Huangpu Institute of Materials, told reporters, "We are trying to get rid of the constraints of geographical location, hoping to turn natural rubber from agricultural products into industrial products." ”
With the raw materials available, the manufacture of aviation tires seems to be close at hand. But how can the reliability and safety of an aviation tire made of biomimetic synthetic rubber be verified?
The reporter followed Wang Jie and walked towards the roaring detection device.
Test: Reliable data is tested under extreme conditions
Coming to the tall and spacious test hall, a full sense of science and technology came to my face, and a tall equipment was being debugged and operated intensively.
After Wang Jie's introduction one by one, the reporter saw the aviation tire high acceleration test bench, tire pavement environment test bench, aircraft landing gear swing test bench, aircraft drop shock test bench and other advanced devices.
In the corner of the hall, there are some aviation tires. Some of them are "eager to try" and wait to be "called" to participate in the experiment, while others have completed their tasks and "lie flat" quietly.
As an important part of the large installation, the aviation tire high acceleration test bench (hereinafter referred to as the "test bench") is the first equipment to be put into commissioning and trial operation, and it is also a powerful tool for testing tire performance.
The test bench can simulate and test the reliability of the performance and service life of the tire under the condition of friction between the tire and the ground at a maximum speed of 600 kilometers per hour, deflection, roll, etc., and provide researchers with first-hand research data.
The reporter walked to the test bench and observed the high-speed rotation and instantaneous pressure test of the bionic synthetic rubber aviation tire being carried out from a safe distance. In just two or three seconds, the speed rose to 350 kilometers per hour.
In the monitoring room on the side, researchers keep an eye on the data changes on the screen.
In addition to the lateral high-speed friction test, the researchers also simulated the scenario of the aircraft tire being under pressure when the aircraft landed—continuously increasing the rotation speed of the tire while continuously increasing the vertical pressure of the tire to make the tire withstand the extreme test.
Of course, one test is not enough, it needs to be repeated in a 24-hour cycle.
"Bang!" suddenly there was a loud noise. After repeated simulation of running, take-off, landing, braking and other working conditions, a high-speed rotating tire reaches the limit, is pulled and deformed, and bursts instantly.
Yang Xiaoniu often comes here to observe the test. "We need to measure and study the data of the force, heat generation, location and evolution of aviation tires during high-speed rotation. He said, "Researchers have to figure out in what form aviation tires are damaged, does this damage affect the safety of the aircraft, and even if there is a millionth part of unreliability, they must detect its limits." ”
At present, the flight take-off and landing dynamics large device has completed 6 specifications of aviation tire tests, and collected more than 2,300 take-off and landing operation data. Cui Rongrong, a researcher at the Huangpu Institute of Materials, introduced that according to the test results, changing the raw material formula and improving the performance of bionic synthetic rubber aviation tires can be improved through continuous iteration. Under extreme working conditions, the service life of bionic synthetic rubber aviation tires can be increased by more than 35% compared with natural rubber aviation tires.
"The flight take-off and landing dynamics large device has some external service operation capabilities, and strives to have comprehensive external service capabilities in another 3-5 years. Facing the future, Yang Xiaoniu said firmly, "We must thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important exposition on the development of new quality productivity, so that the big science center can better play a key role, and help the mainland's aerospace, low-altitude transportation, wheeled equipment and other high-end manufacturing industries have stronger innovation capabilities and move towards the highest international level!"
Source: Science and Technology Daily