What submarines in China are using AIP technology

According to foreign reports, the Navy's Song-class modified submarines have been equipped with AIP power, and the Yuan-class submarines have been equipped with AIP power.

Since Canglong is a relatively new submarine, and China's submarines have always been strong (I've heard of the aircraft carrier incident or something), so the strength should be comparable.

039 yes too.

Song level Yuan level

Song-class modification

<> "What is an AIP submarine?

AIP submarines are submarines that use air-propulsion engines for power, and are characterized by being able to remain underwater for a longer period of time and have better concealment than ordinary conventional submarines.

Although the submarine can sail quietly under the water model, it cannot always stay underneath. The lack of underwater breath-holding power is mainly due to the fact that the power of the submarine under water is higher than that of the battery, which is charged by the diesel engine, and the diesel engine must use air to work. Until nuclear power was developed, it did not need air to provide powerful power.

Nuclear submarines can run wild underwater for months, but they are very expensive to build.

Submarine designers thought of a lot of things. For example, submarines are equipped with oxygen cylinders, and they are used to supply diesel engines when diving. This is called a closed-cycle diesel engine, which is cheap but noisy when underwater.

In addition, there are Stirling hot gas engines and closed-cycle steam turbines, which are less noisy, but the structure is complex and the efficiency is not high.

Later, after years of research, a method of using fuel cells was proposed. A fuel cell is like a chemical reaction vessel that allows hydrogen and oxygen to react directly to produce an electric current, so there are no moving parts and no noise. Miraculously, it does not produce carbon dioxide and other exhaust gases when it works, but produces water.

What's even more amazing is that it is very efficient, theoretically converting all the energy in hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. In any case, most of the energy will be wasted with the exhaust gases of equipment such as closed-cycle diesel engines.

The first country where this technology was used in submarines was Germany, and the German HDW shipyard began land tests on fuel cell systems in 1984, then sea trials, and finally in 1992, the world's first fuel cell AIP submarine was born, which is the famous 212-class submarine.

Nowadays, this technology is also used in many countries, including China. Our AIP submarines have been built since 04 and more than a dozen have been built. Moreover, it has also been exported to foreign countries, and China has mastered this technology relatively advanced.

Compared with similar foreign products, the development of our AIP submarine engine is twice as powerful as others.

Now there are many countries that will build AIP submarines, Sweden, France, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, India and other countries can build them, but the countries with independent AIP technology are currently only Sweden, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Japan, South Korea, and India are either introducing licenses or assembling AIP systems that are ready-made by others.

At present, judging from the test situation and actual use results of various types of AIP systems, conventional submarines equipped with AIP systems have significantly reduced the time for submarines to use snorkels to navigate, increased the underwater endurance of submarines, reduced the exposure rate of submarines, and made up for the major shortcomings of insufficient underwater endurance of conventional submarines. In the increasingly competitive international market for conventional submarines, submarines that are not equipped with the AIP system will no longer be able to attract buyers to pay for them, even if they are otherwise outstanding.

To put it simply, it is equipped with a submarine that does not rely on aerodynamic units (AIP).

The Chinese name of the French AIP submarine is a functional system that does not depend on air, and the entire AIP system can supply power to the power ** system, life support system, and daily equipment of the submarine, isn't this a battery? Indeed, this has a corresponding relationship with battery energy, because submarines cannot obtain oxygen in the air underwater.

To put it simply, AIP technology is a small engine. However, when the engine is running, it does not need to rely on air, so it can be turned on even underwater.

In contrast, conventional conventionally powered submarine engines (usually medium-speed diesel engines) rely on air when they are turned on, so they can only be used on the surface. After diving, you can only turn off the engine and sail on the electricity in the battery. When the battery runs out of power, it must float to the surface and turn on the engine to charge the battery.

Therefore, AIP-powered submarines have a much greater endurance than non-AIP conventionally powered submarines due to their ability to be powered underwater. Conventionally powered submarines generally have an underwater endurance of no more than 400 nautical miles, while AIP submarines can reach about 2,000 nautical miles.

Of course, the AIP engine is not without its drawbacks. The main thing is that the output power is smaller, so it can only sail at a slower rate (generally about 6 knots). In addition, AIP submarines also need to carry liquid or compressed gas fuel, which leads to the enlargement of the submarine hull (wet surface area also increases), and to a certain extent, affects the space utilization rate of the submarine.

At present, there are several technologies:

Closed-cycle steam turbines: less power, about 200kw, mainly used by French submarines for export;

Stirling heat engine: the power is small, about 250kw, and this technology is currently used by Chinese, Swedish and Japanese submarines;

Fuel cell AIP: the power is about 300KW, and this technology is currently used by conventional submarines in Germany and Russia;

Closed-cycle diesel engine: the power is about 350-400kw, at present, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany have developed this technology, but the noise and volume are large, and there is no submarine use for the time being;

Small nuclear power AIP: A technology that uses nuclear power as an auxiliary power and a diesel engine as the main power, with an approximate output of 1 MW. Canada has developed this technology, and theoretically it is not difficult for the P5 countries to realize this technology, but the cost performance is relatively low, and the international politics are still relatively sensitive to non-P5 countries, and it is better for the P5 countries to directly develop nuclear submarines.

There are currently no submarines in use.

It can also be understood as fuel cell technology, which is mainly to solve the problem of floating charging of conventionally powered submarines and improve the underwater endurance, and the current record should be 20 days.

The so-called AIP (Air Independent Propulsion) is an air-independent propulsion system, which refers to an energy system in which a submarine can provide propulsion power without relying on air underwater.

At present, the AIP systems of foreign conventional submarines are mainly divided into two categories: heat engine systems and electrochemical systems. Among them, the heat engine AIP system mainly includes closed-cycle diesel engine, Stirling engine, closed-cycle gas turbine, and nuclear power hybrid propulsion system; The electrochemical AIP system is mainly polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, including alkaline fuel cells and proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Modern Weapons has a detailed introduction in the 327th issue of the total number.

World AIP submarines.

Swedish A-19 The world's first AIP submarine.

French Spanish Wormfish.

Italian Type 212A.

German 212a 206a

Pakistan A-90 ......

1. Introduction to AIP technical content.

The AIP system, also known as the "air-independent propulsion system", is a "power revolution" in the history of conventional submarine development. After a long period of development, the AIP system has basically met the conditions for loading and use, which makes the conventional submarine for the first time partially have the long-term diving capability like a nuclear submarine, and makes the conventional submarine that has been born for more than 100 years once again glow with vitality.

2. AIP systems are classified according to their working principles.

AIP system can be divided into heat engine, closed cycle diesel engine, fuel cell, closed cycle steam turbine, etc. according to its working principle, each country has its own development focus according to specific national conditions, among which heat engine system and fuel cell system have been put into use.

Resources.

The hybrid diesel-electric submarine does not rely on aerodynamic equipment, and the core device is a fuel cell. Sweden is a world leader in this field.

Doesn't rely on air technology. Traditional diesel-electric submarines rely on diesel combustion to produce energy, so different air must be floated to help burn, so they are easy to be exposed. AIP, on the other hand, means not dependent on air.

In fact, it also depends, but it is not so frequent, and the long time can last for almost a month, which is enough for conventional submarines in shallow waters)