4 ms·

Do you have any idea how complicated a single turbine blade is? It's a monocrystal of a superalloy that retains strength at over 1.5k degrees F, and it has chan

Do you have any idea how complicated a single turbine blade is? It's a monocrystal of a superalloy that retains strength at over 1.5k degrees F, and it has channels for coolant because it operates beyond that temperature. You're like saying a computer is a bunch of wire and some melted sand between some copper.

honestoHeminway 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbine_blade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbine_blade Its a shame that so much of humanity is so clueless about the technology surrounding it by now. Its all magic and fairy dust. If you stop believing into your computer, the machine will die.
ben_w 8y ago
Huh, interesting. I thought monocrystal blades were only for military engines and civilian engines made do with cheaper stuff which required a slightly lower maximum engine temperature. Then again, I did get my information from a friend in the pub (he’s a Cambridge PhD, but still).
southern_cross 8y ago
Once again, you're confusing materials and manufacturing complexity for actual mechanical complexity. I remember when I first got a close look at a jet turbine fan blade, and being puzzled by some aspects of it, like the channels that ran all the way through it. (I remember thinking that those channels must have been pretty tricky to make.) But then I realized that these were probably for cooling, like you said. I was most impressed by its relatively complex shape, and by no doubt the exotic material that it was made of and the tight tolerances it held. But in the end it's nothing more than a simple fan blade. BTW, I had some similar impressions about the close-up look I once got of a large rocket engine nozzle. Then I realized that it was really nothing more than a big coiled cooling tube surrounded by an external shell - pretty simple stuff, actually. And the "de Laval" part of that nozzle, which is what makes it work to begin with, is as simple as can be and is a design which dates back to over a century ago.
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  I know that it's a big container holding a bunch of fan blades on the same rod that push air around at different speeds. But from what I found, the Trent 1000 (Rolls Royce engine for Boeing Dreamliner/787) cost $8B to develop and has 30,000 components in it. I just don't agree with you that the elegance of it's mechanism of action means that it's not insanely complicated in its implementation.
  - southern_cross 8y ago
    And that component count no doubt includes very basic things like rivets and nuts and bolts and wires and connectors and so on. Maybe even the individual balls in the ball bearings, if they still even use such things. Probably also the individual electrical components in the control circuits and such. And how many individual fan blades are in them these days - hundreds, thousands maybe? Note the attached link; strip away all of the external pipes and wires and such (all part of the component count, no doubt), and what you're left with is mechanically relatively simple. A challenge to build and maintain, maybe, with tons of fan blades, but still pretty simple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Trent_1000#/media/File:Goodwin_Hall_Entry_Rolls_Royce_T1000.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Trent_1000#/media/...

honestoHeminway 8y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbine_blade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbine_blade Its a shame that so much of humanity is so clueless about the technology surrounding it by now. Its all magic and fairy dust. If you stop believing into your computer, the machine will die.

ben_w 8y ago

Huh, interesting. I thought monocrystal blades were only for military engines and civilian engines made do with cheaper stuff which required a slightly lower maximum engine temperature. Then again, I did get my information from a friend in the pub (he’s a Cambridge PhD, but still).

southern_cross 8y ago

Once again, you're confusing materials and manufacturing complexity for actual mechanical complexity. I remember when I first got a close look at a jet turbine fan blade, and being puzzled by some aspects of it, like the channels that ran all the way through it. (I remember thinking that those channels must have been pretty tricky to make.) But then I realized that these were probably for cooling, like you said. I was most impressed by its relatively complex shape, and by no doubt the exotic material that it was made of and the tight tolerances it held. But in the end it's nothing more than a simple fan blade. BTW, I had some similar impressions about the close-up look I once got of a large rocket engine nozzle. Then I realized that it was really nothing more than a big coiled cooling tube surrounded by an external shell - pretty simple stuff, actually. And the "de Laval" part of that nozzle, which is what makes it work to begin with, is as simple as can be and is a design which dates back to over a century ago.

throwaway5752 8y ago
I know that it's a big container holding a bunch of fan blades on the same rod that push air around at different speeds. But from what I found, the Trent 1000 (Rolls Royce engine for Boeing Dreamliner/787) cost $8B to develop and has 30,000 components in it. I just don't agree with you that the elegance of it's mechanism of action means that it's not insanely complicated in its implementation.
- southern_cross 8y ago
  And that component count no doubt includes very basic things like rivets and nuts and bolts and wires and connectors and so on. Maybe even the individual balls in the ball bearings, if they still even use such things. Probably also the individual electrical components in the control circuits and such. And how many individual fan blades are in them these days - hundreds, thousands maybe? Note the attached link; strip away all of the external pipes and wires and such (all part of the component count, no doubt), and what you're left with is mechanically relatively simple. A challenge to build and maintain, maybe, with tons of fan blades, but still pretty simple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Trent_1000#/media/File:Goodwin_Hall_Entry_Rolls_Royce_T1000.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Trent_1000#/media/...