Marine fuel boiler is the heart of large warship power plant. Once the firebrick in the furnace is damaged or collapsed, the warship will lose power and be unable to navigate, and it is difficult to repair in a short time. If this happens on the battlefield, the ship will become a living target. The development of a new type of ultra high temperature firebrick for ships is a long cherished wish of warship experts for many years.

How high is the fire resistance of fire-resistant bricks for ships to withstand the scorching of the fire? In this regard, the Naval Engineering University Yang Zichun said: Real gold is not afraid of smelting, because the melting point of gold is high, more than 1000 degrees Celsius. Fire-resistant bricks for ships should withstand the high temperature of two times melting point of gold and do not deform without weakening.

The refractory above 1500 C is a kind of ultra-high temperature refractory. It is an insurmountable technical problem for the refractory to increase by 50 C. In order to develop high performance refractory bricks, Yang Zichun consulted the literature, visited the famous domestic research institutes and manufacturers of refractory materials, after full investigation and scientific demonstration, finally selected a new type of ceramic materials. This kind of ceramic material is quite different from the ceramics in our daily life. It not only has the advantages of good heat resistance and long service life of ceramics, but also has the disadvantages of poor toughness of ceramics. In order to make full use of its advantages and avoid its disadvantages, more than 20 other materials have been added. It can be said that it is a resounding high-performance composite material.

More than 20 kinds of raw materials each account for a large proportion, not only with the guidance of material science knowledge, but also rely on a large number of experiments to verify. Yang Zichun and his colleagues have made more than 100 plans for 9 ceramic materials series. It takes a week for the materials to be preheated into the furnace until the finished products are fired, and on these seven days they eat and live in the laboratory, and keep a continuous observation record. After the finished product is discharged from the furnace, the physical and chemical properties of the finished product are tested, analyzed and calculated one by one with modern testing instruments, and then the material formula is modified and improved. This cycle has lasted for more than a year, and the formulation of new ceramic materials has been determined.

The single fire resistance may not be the most difficult to solve. Then another difficult problem lay in front of Yang Zichun, which is to improve the thermal insulation performance of materials. As a refractory material for boiler, it also has excellent heat insulation performance. The refractory brick is only about 10 centimeters thick, the temperature of the fire face is close to 2000, but the temperature of the back fire face is lower than 300, otherwise the steel shell of the boiler may be soft and deformed.

Ceramic materials have good heat resistance and good heat transfer performance. It's really hard to make it both fireproof and insulated. Yang Zichun launched an impact on this technology fortress. Air is a poor conductor of heat, and the method of microporous material is used to achieve heat insulation. However, the knowledge of how large the hole is and how to do it is very great. The traditional idea is that the bigger the hole, the greater the stomatal density, the better the heat insulation effect. Yang Zichun found a new phenomenon contrary to the traditional idea in the engineering test comparison: the same material, within a certain range of small pore diameter than large diameter of the insulation effect is better.

Is this an accidental phenomenon or is it a failure of observation? Yang Zichun and his colleagues have carried out a lot of experimental research around this phenomenon. Facts have repeatedly proved that Yang Zichun's discovery is correct, and his academic papers have been highly concerned by materials experts both at home and abroad since their publication. Through further study, Yang Zichun first applied the new theory of functionally gradient materials to create a new nano-scale ceramic refractory micro-porous new technology, new technology. Later, he realized the new technology of surface closed hole treatment for new materials.

Yang Zichun has developed a new type of refractory and thermal insulation ceramic brick, which has won a national invention patent and two national utility model patents. He has won the first prize of military scientific and technological progress and the silver prize of the 14th National Science and Technology Invention Exposition. This has filled in the blank of domestic high-grade special refractory and thermal insulation materials for marine boilers.

Professor Yang has said most about the complex and harsh working conditions in the furnace of a marine boiler: not only the oxidation erosion caused by fire and oil fumes, but also the intense impact and vibration of artillery fire, missile launches and high winds and waves, as well as frequent ignition and extinguishment, and severe temperature differences of thousands of degrees. The test of change and so on. There is no limit to scientific research. Yang Zichun and his team are sailing to develop more reliable refractories and better insulation.