J-20 5th Generation Fighter VII
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China says it has made significant progress in improving its military jet engines – a long-standing problem that has hampered its military modernisation programme.
State media reported that it has developed a new coating material for turbines that helps “fill a technological gap” and will help increase the thrust power in the engines.
The membrane designed by the Yuanke Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Technology Development Company in Hebei province can withstand temperatures of 1,800 Celsius, Guangming Daily Online reported, and will help protect them from corrosion and ensure a higher power output.
“It fills the technological gap in the application of aero-engine turbine blades in this field for China, breaking the international monopoly,” the reports said.
The country’s main fighter jet engine, the WS-10, can withstand temperatures of around 1,470 Celsius and the improvement could help significantly improve the engine’s output power.
Fan blades have long been an Achilles’ heel in China’s programme to develop jet engines.
The new coating is designed to withstand higher temperatures and operate more effectively in desert conditions. Photo: Weibo
In a most notorious example, delays in the development of a new engine for the air force’s most advanced fifth-generation stealth fighter jet the J-20 have slowed production of the planes.
Scientists have spent years struggling to get the WS-15 engine designed for the planes to work properly – largely because the blades keep overheating at high speeds – and the PLA air force has been forced to use Russian-made engines or a modified version of the WS-10 – both of which reduce the plane’s stealth and combat capabilities.
The new coating is made of fullerene, a football-shaped carbon molecule, that the makers say will have a service life of 2,000 hours and has anti-corrosion properties.
As well as being able to withstand the temperatures required to allow the J-20 to operate at its full capabilities, if proven to work, this new material could also double the working efficiency of the aero engines in desert conditions.
This is significant because the airspace in such environments is high in elements such as calcium, manganese, aluminium, silicon, which react with the engines and can damage the blades, the report said.
In 2019, the same developer in 2019 also produced a similar technology for helicopter blades, which could also improve the performance of military helicopters in desert conditions.
While I'm no expert on material science, as I recall the F-22's F119 engine uses a mixture of "silicon carbide fibre" and boron fibre for its components.
Naturally a comparison will be made between this carbon-based fullerene (which is a general term to describe the state of the molecule and not exclusive to carbon) for the WS-15 and the silicon carbide/boron variety (which presumably marries the high compression strength of boron fibre with the thermal tolerances of carbon) being applied onto the F119.
As a related aside, while it may be too much to expect from SCMP, the "2,000 hours" of service life is somewhat meaningless without knowing how many total accumulated cycles (TAC) it can withstand, since it varies depending on the amount of thrust cycles and RPM the the engine is put under at any given time. Again for comparison, the F119 has a designed life of 8,650 TACs that had been ran over a 1,700-hour time frame, which equates to 5 TACs per hour of flight time, which is not a lot when TACs per hour can accrue in the teens during exercise or combat sorties.
So the WS-15's 2,000 hours is either very impressive if measured in a similar vein as the USAF does for their engines, or less so if the PLAAF just ran the engine continuously with minimal throttle activities for the duration.
Yes, now I see it too.
Production WS-10C on J-20s have the following characteristics:
1) black nozzle petals
2) jagged nozzles
3) inside of nozzles are white and have this ceramic look.
They were done with afterburners. It is just that the flames aren’t visible due to the lighting.
Since the flames aren't visible, then what's suggesting that the jet is using afterburners?
Degree of dilation of engine nozzles. Also, I’m not one hundred percent correct when I said that the flames aren’t visible. There were a few frames of the video where the nozzle is pointing towards the camera and you can see bluish flames clearly.
Quickie
Colonel
Under bright sunlight, it's difficult to see the afterburner plume from the side but you can see the glowing flame holder by looking directly into the nozzle at 00:23.
Yes, you're right, I see it. I had assumed that was just "regular burn" since it was so dim and was very deep inside the engine.
Also the setting looks very cloudy and not bright at all.
Are we sure that is the afterburner on the J20? There's videos where F35 show visible plumage even under bright sunlight like this:
Notably at 1:11, there is faint but visible plumage even though it's a very sunny day with very few clouds.
There are also multiple settings for afterburner.
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