Chapter 862 Tank Engine

Yannick convened the heads of Mercedes (Benz), Maybach, Skoda, Porsche and other companies to discuss the development progress of tank engines.

"Your Highness, there are several new engines that can be put into mass production immediately. Maybach's HL230 gasoline engine, 700 horsepower; Mercedes (Benz)'s MB 507 water-cooled diesel engine, constant power of 700 horsepower, short-term limit power of 850 horsepower; Porsche's Sla 16 air-cooled diesel engine, 750 horsepower; KHD's T8 M118 V8 two-stroke water-cooled diesel engine, maximum power of 800 horsepower.

In addition, Maybach's HL 234 gasoline engine, which can reach 900 horsepower, and Mercedes (Benz)'s MB 507 water-cooled diesel engine high-power version, constant power of 850 horsepower, short-term limit power of 1000 horsepower. "

Yannick nodded with satisfaction, muttering in his heart that Maybach has completely monopolized the gasoline engine market.

So far, all German tanks use gasoline engines. Yannick is a little hesitant about whether the heavy tanks that are about to be put into production should continue to use gasoline engines or switch to diesel engines.

The Germans in the original time and space have been tirelessly racing on the road of gasoline engines since the No. 1 tank. At that time, the HL230 engine of the Black Panther was the smallest, most fuel-efficient, most powerful, and most productive tank engine with more than 600 horsepower in the world, leaving the diesel engine, which was not very mature at the time, behind. This is also one of the reasons why the Black Panther was considered by many military fans to be the best medium tank design in World War II.

As for why German tanks did not use diesel engines in World War II, many military fans believe that Germany lacked fuel and allocated most of the diesel to the navy to meet the needs of marine engines. However, this is not the case. Although the German Army nominally wanted to use gasoline as a standardized fuel, during World War II, various factories within the German war economy system produced a total of 150,000 military diesel vehicles, which gave diesel engines a place in the army's motorized forces. For example, the Mercedes-Benz L3000 was the flagship model of Mercedes-Benz during World War II, and the larger L4500 also used diesel power. In addition to Mercedes-Benz, the main military models of Busin-Nag, KHD and MAN are also mainly diesel-powered.

Moreover, the United States across the Atlantic also has a lot of gasoline engine tanks (except for the M4A2 and M4A4 diesel engines). As mentioned earlier, the United States' oil production accounted for more than half of the world's oil production at that time, and they were not short of oil. Even if the United States did not have diesel engine technology reserves, it had provided so many materials to the Soviet Union. Isn't it a small matter to ask the Soviet Union to provide diesel engine technology?

And the Americans did study the Soviets' diesel engines. In 1942, several Soviet tanks were transported to the "Aberdeen Weapons Proving Ground" in Maryland, eastern United States, and a series of tests began, including T-34, KV-1, etc.

During the test, the engine of the T-34 was completely scrapped after 343 kilometers and could not be repaired. The Americans found that it was the "air filter" that was causing the engine to not get enough air to keep it running at full load. In addition, a lot of dust and particulate matter entered the cylinder, causing the cylinder to wear and reduce output.

It was not without cost that the Soviet Union put the V-2 diesel engine into the tank. The aluminum frame reduced the weight while also shortening the engine life. "Fortunately", most T-34s did not survive their already short lifespan and were destroyed by the Germans, making this shortcoming less abrupt.

At that time, the Soviet Union produced a large number of low-end general-purpose machine tools with low technical content. It was not until the United States and the United Kingdom provided the Soviet Union with high-end machine tools and special machine tools (the United States provided the Soviet Union with 1,000 machine tools and the United Kingdom provided 5,000 machine tools) that the quality of the manufactured components was improved, and the engine life was also improved.

Although the performance of the T-34 was not ideal, the Americans did not give up and installed the GM-6046 engine and mechanical gearbox of General Motors into the M4 tank, turning it into the M4A2 model. It turned out that this thing was not only less powerful than the R-975 gasoline engine most commonly used in the Sherman series, but also more cumbersome. The M4A4 (equipped with the Chrysler A57 diesel engine) used for export needed to be extended and enlarged to fit the new power system, which also affected the combat capability of the M4A4.

As a result, the then commander-in-chief of the US Army Armored Forces, Lieutenant General Jacob, issued an order: All army units were not allowed to use diesel Shermans in areas outside the homeland (rear). The M4A2 and M4A4 produced were supported by other allies or thrown to the Marine Corps.

But no matter what, thinking about the complete elimination of gasoline engines by the armies of various countries in the future, Yannick knew that following the trend was the most correct decision.

"What about exhaust gas turbocharging technology?" The diesel engine itself has a low speed. If you want to increase the power, the best and simplest way is to use supercharging technology. In the future, there are mainly two types of mechanical supercharging and exhaust gas turbocharging. Among them, exhaust gas turbocharging technology is the most widely used due to its higher energy efficiency ratio.

The principle is that the high-temperature and high-speed combustion gas discharged from the cylinder of the internal combustion engine is supplied to the turbine of the turbocharger through the exhaust pipe, driving the turbine to rotate, and the turbine then drives the coaxial compressor impeller to rotate. The compressor compresses the inhaled air, and the air with increased pressure flows through the intake pipe of the internal combustion engine and is supplied to the cylinder, thereby achieving the purpose of supercharging.

Moreover, this exhaust gas turbocharging technology is not an advanced technology of later generations. As early as 1905, two Swiss engineers successively proposed a turbocharging scheme and conducted early diesel engine constant pressure supercharging and pulse supercharging system experiments. Exhaust gas turbocharging was used on marine engines, and then aviation piston engines also adopted supercharging technology.

In later generations, not only tanks used abandoned turbocharging technology, but also general high-power internal combustion engines such as trains, trucks, tanks, excavators, large engineering machinery, ships, etc. diesel engines all adopted this system. After supercharging, the engine power can be increased by 40% to 60% compared with the original engine, or even more.

"Your Highness, all technical difficulties of exhaust gas turbocharging have been overcome and can be put into use."

"Very good," Yannick, who was about to announce that all newly developed tanks would use diesel engines, suddenly remembered the gas turbine.

This is a special thing for the tanks of the first military power in the future (the original Russian T-80 also used gas turbines, but it was discontinued, and the subsequent T-90 was changed back to diesel engines).

Or continue to use gasoline engines for more than ten years, and then jump directly to gas turbines?

After thinking for a long time, Yannick shook his head and gave up the idea. Even if it is a diesel engine, it may be no problem to use it for 100 years. Besides, the Leopard 2 with a diesel engine in the future will not necessarily lose to the M1.

(Sorry, there is only one chapter today)