Besides breaking the ice, what tasks did the Snow Dragon icebreaker undertake?

There are two ships on the dock, and an ordinary cargo ship happens to be in the same dock as "Snow Dragon 2". It can be seen that it is not the same as the ships sailing in the ordinary sea area next to it. Instead of the spherical nose in front, it is a simple design that slopes down directly. But this seemingly simple design is the key to breaking the ice in the polar regions. The bow "ice-breaking bow" is close to "Snow Dragon 2", and the mystery can be seen from the simple design above. This bulge on the bow is the special "ice-breaking bow" for breaking ice. It's not sharp because it shouldn't cut like a knife. Instead, the huge forward pressure generated by the inertia and gravity of the ship during the driving process is used to press the ice, thus breaking the ice. So this raised part will bear a huge impact. As we know, the thickness of the steel plate inside it is more than five times that of an ordinary ship.

In addition to breaking the ice, Xuelong 2 will also undertake polar scientific research tasks. Before the birth of "Snow Dragon 2", "Snow Dragon 2" was almost the only polar icebreaker in China to make a scientific expedition to the North and South poles. Snow Dragon itself is a polar container ship. Although it has been modified many times, its transportation use still exceeds scientific research use. Although they all travel to and from the North Pole and South Pole, most of the time they transport materials between scientific research stations. The real scientific research time is about one year 15 days. As a result, the Snow Dragon 2 specially designed for polar exploration came into being. It can carry 49 expedition members at the same time, and at the same time, it is equipped with many lifting equipment for offshore operations and internationally leading scientific research instruments. After put into use, the time of polar exploration will be extended to more than 150 days.

Longxue 2' s biggest improvement is its ability to break ice. WU GANG, researcher of the 708th Institute of CSSC and chief designer of Longxue No.2, introduced that this is the world's first polar icebreaker, which uses the bow and stern two-way icebreaking technology. The bi-directional icebreaker has the ability to continuously break the ice at the speed of 2-3 knots, and the icebreaker at the stern can realize that the ice ridge and the 20cm snow layer are not stuck at 20 m. In order to ensure that the icebreaker can penetrate several meters thick, the hull is made of special steel, and the thickest part of the hull is 100mm, which is 30%-50% thicker than the conventional ship plate. In the cockpit. WU GANG, the chief designer of Longxue No.2, introduced that the electric propulsion system of full-slewing pod was adopted for two-way ice breaking. When encountering an ice ridge that is difficult to "arch", the propulsion part rotates 180, and at the same time the stern becomes the bow. The propeller at the tail can cut the ice under the sea surface and "empty" the ice ridge more than 10 meters high. Breaking the ice is the function, and scientific research is the purpose. There is a large square well-yuechi county at the bottom of the ship, with a depth of about 10m, which can reach the seabed directly. There are two bottom covers above and below the well, which has good water tightness.

Simply put, it is to "dig a well" from the cabin to the bottom of the ship. From the wellhead to the bottom of the well, it is about tens of meters deep. Open the watertight cover at the bottom of the well and you can reach the ocean directly. "With this moon pool system, even if the scientific research ship is surrounded by thick ice, it will not affect the scientific research equipment and collect marine samples." According to WU GANG, the Moon Pool built on Xuelong 2 is the first "water-tight Moon Pool" in the world, that is, the Moon Pool is completely water-tight and will not leak even if it is submerged. In addition to the moon pool, the practical configuration of various cranes, and the integrated design of wooden ship plates and deck fixtures at the stern, Xuelong 2 has made a qualitative leap over the old Xuelong in terms of scientific research conditions, equipment performance and spatial layout. WU GANG took the polar research ship "Snow Dragon" to the South Pole for scientific investigation. He noticed that many explorers would "trip" on the deck after boarding in the polar regions. This is because people's outdoor activity ability is reduced at low temperature, and the deck is frozen.