052C/052D Class Destroyers
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Could be simple oversight, could be the status of the Z-20 program at the time, could be preference not to ask more of the 052D's propulsion?
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Lengthening a ship is no small change, and given that the 052D is primarily an AAW DDG, I don’t think adding a better ASW helicopter would have justified such a big change.
Much more likely that they lengthened the hull for another reason (IEPS?), which allowed them to add a bigger hanger as an added bonus.
The hanger would be over the propulsion area, particularly over the drive shaft and train, transmission. This would be the perfect spot to add generators and electric motors.
Another thing is that due to the technological conservatism of the engineers, they are likely to match a new factor (IPS) over an older, proven platform, to minimize unknown variables. Thus likely they would try IEP on a proven ship design (052D, 054A) than a brand new one (055). I like also to pay a little attention on the last one or two 054A; usually the last members of a class may tend to get features that foreshadow the next class., as a sort of transitional model.
Another thing is that due to the technological conservatism of the engineers, they are likely to match a new factor (IPS) over an older, proven platform, to minimize unknown variables. Thus likely they would try IEP on a proven ship design (052D, 054A) than a brand new one (055). I like also to pay a little attention on the last one or two 054A; usually the last members of a class may tend to get features that foreshadow the next class., as a sort of transitional model.
A question. From most available sources, I get 17 052Ds in all conditions (building, fitting out, trials, active). I was under the impression that most rumors tended to specify a first order for 18 ships, before moving to a new variant (052E?). Is it possible that they are going to do this transition now, or are there more 052D hulls I have missed?
Designing warships isn't like messing around with Lego
The gensets have to be co-located with the GTs/Diesels (much further forward near the funnel i.e. ahead of the rear VLS)
There's no need for gearboxes/clutches/transmission sets with electric motors
With pure electric drive, you can typically get away with shorter shafts for better survivability against damage but conversely need to ensure the HV wiring between the gensets and motors are well protected which has implications for the bulkheads between them, i.e. if you are going to plonk the electric motors further back in the stern you'll need to route the HV cables through more bulkheads in a manner that avoids impairing survivability from battle damage.
To support a larger helicopter means a bigger flight deck, to allow sufficient clearance/safety, the length of the hangar itself assuming the Chinese designers are as proficient at origami as other Naval helicopter designers doesn't necessarily need to grow as much, especially since the width of the existing hangar doesn't appear to be the full beam of the ship and looks tall and narrow with large full length cutouts either side in the roofline.
True, generators need to be located right next after the GTs and diesels. But electric motors need to be near the propellers. You want the shafts as short as possible to incur the least amount of friction and vibration, which to incur maximum efficiency and with the side benefit of less noise for ASW work. But between the generators and the cables, its not just motors, but large transformers and frequency converters. Specifically, you would need some large frequency converters in particularly called a variable frequency drive that lets you change the AC frequency on command. This component lets you control the speed of the rotation of the electric motors. So I don't really think you need cables that long before you go to voltage transformers then to frequency converters then to the electric motors.
Actually, lengthening a ship is probably one of the smallest possible structural changes. There is no reason to believe the PLAN lengthened the 052D for any other purpose than to accommodate a larger hangar and/or a larger flight deck. The structural changes that arrived with the Flight IIA Burkes did nothing more and nothing less than exactly this.
You would think this would be the case, but in fact you should look at some schematics of the Daring class and note where the electric motors are and how long the drive shafts are.
Someone is updating the Type 052D page in the Chinese Wiki. He seems to know his stuff. I used Google Translate on this.
From LKJ86 at Pakdef. I don't know if this has been posted before. She's definitely not in a shipyard.
There's talk that 052D ends at the 20th ship, and is followed by the 052E by another 20.
From LKJ86 at Pakdef. I don't know if this has been posted before. She's definitely not in a shipyard.
There's talk that 052D ends at the 20th ship, and is followed by the 052E by another 20.