Chapter 193: What! The Theories Used Before Were All Wrong?

"Not right... still not right."

Inside the energy laboratory of the Longyin Research Institute, Zhao Kaiyuan stared at the data stream jumping on the screen; this was already the thirteenth simulation calculation result he had refreshed.

He took off his glasses and rubbed his sore eyes hard; the coffee that had long gone cold beside him left a ring of water stains on the table.

It had been seventy-two hours continuously.

The optimization project for the cooling system of the "Xuanming-Micro" fusion reactor was stuck on a seemingly simple problem:

How to ensure heat dissipation efficiency without increasing volume and weight.

The military's new requirements were very clear: the energy core of the next-generation individual mech needed a thirty percent increase in power.

The volume needed to be reduced by twenty percent, and the cooling system's energy consumption couldn't exceed five percent of the total output.

Theoretically, it was feasible, but doing it in practice was like dancing on the tip of a needle.

"Kaiyuan, still not resting this late?"

Chen Guang's voice came from the doorway.

He walked in with two cups of freshly brewed coffee and placed one beside Zhao Kaiyuan.

"The night data from the test field just finished transmitting, I stopped by to take a look." Chen Guang pushed his glasses, his gaze sweeping over the screen.

"How's the progress?"

"Stuck on this heat dissipation model," Zhao Kaiyuan smiled bitterly and took the coffee.

"According to existing theory, this multi-layer circulation system we designed has a fatal flaw under extreme operating conditions."

"Hot and cold fluids form local vortices near the third heat exchanger, causing efficiency to plummet by forty percent."

He pulled up the 3D simulation diagram, where red high-temperature areas and blue coolant streamlines intertwined, indeed showing turbulence at a certain node.

"I've tried seven improvement schemes, the best one only managed to press the efficiency loss to twenty-five percent, but the military requires it to be within ten percent."

Chen Guang was silent for a few seconds, sat down in the empty seat next to him, and his fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard.

"Give me the raw data."

Two minutes later, only the sound of keyboard tapping and the hum of the cabinet cooling fans remained in the laboratory.

Zhao Kaiyuan leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling.

He remembered three years ago, when he was still the boss of Kaiyuan Energy, worrying about battery costs and market share every day.

He never would have imagined back then that he would be pulling all-nighters in a national-level laboratory for the heat dissipation problem of a fusion reactor.

"Interesting."

Chen Guang suddenly spoke.

"What?"

"In your heat dissipation model, you assumed the flow rate of the coolant in the pipe was evenly distributed," Chen Guang pulled up a mathematical formula.

"But in actual fluid mechanics, the boundary layer effect near the pipe wall causes the flow rate to have a parabolic distribution."

"How big is the error in the simplified assumption you used here?"

Zhao Kaiyuan was stunned.

That assumption... was the standard model from textbooks twenty years ago.

From university until now, he had done countless heat dissipation designs, and no one had ever questioned this issue.

"Theoretically, the error is less than three thousandths, which can be ignored," he said.

"Under normal operating conditions, yes," Chen Guang highlighted a parameter on the screen.

"But what is the core temperature of this fusion reactor of yours?"

"Under steady-state operation, the central plasma temperature is 150 million degrees, the first wall..."

"What about the wall temperature?"

"After multi-layer protective structures, the temperature transmitted to the heat exchanger contact surface is... eight hundred degrees Celsius," Zhao Kaiyuan said, suddenly realizing something.

"Wait, you mean—"

"To what extent will an error of three thousandths be amplified under a temperature difference of eight hundred degrees?"

Chen Guang pulled up the calculation interface and input the new formula.

Zhao Kaiyuan held his breath.

The simulation image on the screen began to re-render.

The red high-temperature areas shrank, and the blue coolant streamlines became more regular.

But most importantly, the vortex point causing efficiency loss was moving.

The vortex point was actually moving?

"The vortex position moved back by 0.3 millimeters," Chen Guang said calmly.

"And the intensity weakened by sixty percent."

Zhao Kaiyuan sat up straight: "What does this mean?"

"It means your cooling system's actual efficiency might be fifteen to twenty percent higher than you calculated," Chen Guang paused.

"But it also means that all your previous designs based on the wrong model need to be re-evaluated."

The laboratory was silent for five seconds.

Then Zhao Kaiyuan suddenly grabbed the draft paper on the table and started calculating frantically.

"Not right... if the boundary layer effect needs to be considered, what about the turbulence model?"

"And the microscopic roughness of the heat exchange surface..." he muttered, his pen tip drawing messy formulas on the paper.

"Chen Guang, help me call up thirty percent of 'Torch Dragon's' computing power, I want to run a full-system simulation again!"

"I've already applied for it for you," Chen Guang operated the tablet. "The results are expected in twenty minutes."

The waiting time was exceptionally long.

Zhao Kaiyuan kept staring at the progress bar jumping in the bottom right corner of the screen, his fingers tapping the table unconsciously.

He remembered a paper from university, which was his research direction during his graduate stage, about the nonlinear effects of fluid heat transfer at extreme temperatures.

But that paper was rejected by his supervisor, with the reason being "the assumptions are too idealized and lack practical application value."

Could it be...

"The results are out."

The screen switched, and the new heat distribution map covered the entire display.

Zhao Kaiyuan leaned in to look, then gasped.

Cooling system efficiency: theoretical value ninety-two percent, actual simulation value... ninety-five point seven percent.

It was actually three point seven percent higher than expected.

More importantly, that vortex problem that had plagued him for three days didn't exist at all under the new model.

The fluid flowed steadily across the entire heat exchange surface, and the temperature gradient perfectly matched the design requirements.

"This..." Zhao Kaiyuan's voice trembled slightly. "This isn't scientific."

"This is very scientific," Chen Guang pushed his glasses.

"It's just that the previous model was overly simplified."

He pulled up the detailed data list: "According to the new model, your cooling system has twelve percent redundancy capacity under extreme operating conditions, which means."

"Means we can shrink the cooling system by another circle!" Zhao Kaiyuan's eyes lit up. "How much weight can be reduced?"

Chen Guang calculated quickly: "If the original heat dissipation capacity is maintained, the volume can be reduced by at least eighteen percent, and the weight reduced by twenty-two percent."

"If designed to increase heat dissipation capacity by thirty percent as required by the military..."

He paused.

"The volume and weight can be maintained, but the overall heat exchange efficiency will increase by forty-two percent."

The two looked at each other, seeing the shock in each other's eyes.

What did this mean?

It meant that the power output limit of the "Xuanming-Micro" fusion reactor could be raised another notch.

It meant that the endurance time of individual mechs, the energy supply of weapon systems, and the performance of all electrical equipment could all usher in a leap-forward improvement.

"Wait," Zhao Kaiyuan suddenly thought of something.

"If the heat dissipation model is wrong, what about the energy output model?"

"What about the plasma confinement model of the core?"

"The theoretical framework of the entire system..."

He didn't dare to think further.

A standard assumption that had been used for twenty years was proven to have significant errors under extreme conditions.

Could the entire fusion theoretical system built on this assumption also have similar loopholes?

"This all needs verification," Chen Guang had already started acting.

"I'll start re-deducing from the basic physical model, and you're responsible for engineering parameter correction."

"Haozi has supercomputing permissions over there, I'll have him open a temporary channel."

The phone was dialed again, and it rang seven or eight times before being answered.

"Hello... who is it in the middle of the night..." Wang Hao's sleepy voice came over.

"Laboratory, come over now," Chen Guang said concisely.

"Guangzi? Damn, what time is it now... I have to test the trajectory algorithm of 'Kuafu-2' tomorrow..."

"Kaiyuan might have discovered something that can change all equipment energy rules."

The other end of the phone was silent for two seconds, then the sound of a door opening came.

"I'm coming immediately."

Three minutes later, Wang Hao rushed into the laboratory with messy hair, still wearing pajamas.

"What thing, what thing?"

"Can change the rules?" his eyes widened.

"My newly improved missile isn't finished yet, don't change the rules too fast!"

Zhao Kaiyuan explained the situation in the simplest terms.

Wang Hao listened, mouth agape for a long time, then slapped his thigh hard: "Damn! Damn! Kaiyuan, this is more exciting than my missiles!"

"If this is really verified, all our equipment's energy systems will have to be redesigned!"

He rushed to the console, typing commands: "Supercomputing permissions are open, fifty percent computing power is allocated to you! How much time do you need?"

"Basic model verification takes at least eight hours," Chen Guang looked at the code starting to scroll on the screen.

"But we can do a simplified version of the extreme operating condition test first."

"Use the existing 'Xuanming' reactor, push the output power to 120% of the design value, and see the consistency between actual heat dissipation data and the new model's predictions."

"Too conservative," Zhao Kaiyuan suddenly said. "Push it directly to 150%."

The laboratory was silent for a moment.

"The design safety redundancy of the existing reactor type is 130%," Chen Guang reminded.

"150% might trigger uncontrollable thermal runaway."

"So we will monitor in real-time during the test, and once the data deviates from the model prediction by more than five thousandths, immediately emergency stop," Zhao Kaiyuan took a deep breath.

"But if the new model is correct, the actual temperature of the core under 150% load will be seven to ten percent lower than predicted by the old model."

"This means it's actually still within the safe range."

Wang Hao looked at Zhao Kaiyuan, then at Chen Guang, and then grinned: "Exciting! Haozi likes it! Do we do it?"

Chen Guang pushed his glasses and was silent for three seconds.

"I need Brother Feng's authorization."

The phone was dialed again, and this time it was answered after only two rings.

"Speak," Feng Yan's voice came from the phone. ===== CHAPTER 194 =====