Posted on 10/20/2014 4:28:09 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
‘Liaoning’ shut down during recent sea trials
There’s no more of a conspicuous and potent symbol of China’s growing naval power than the aircraft carrier Liaoning.
But the 53,000-ton, 999-foot-long carrier could be dangerous to her crew and prone to engine failures. If so, that makes the vessel as much of a liability as an asset to Beijing.
The ex-Soviet carrier once went by the name Varyag until a cash-strapped Ukraine sold the ship to Beijing in 1998. The Chinese navy has since invested considerable resources into modernizing the warship and testing her at sea.
But on at least one occasion during recent sea trials, Liaoning appeared to suffer a steam explosion which temporarily knocked out the carrier’s electrical power system. The failure, reported by Chinese media site Sina.com, resulting from a leak in “the machine oven compartment to the water pipes.”
We’re only able to glimpse at the carrier’s engine problems, as we know very little about what’s inside the ship. This includes even what kind of engines Liaoning has.
The Chinese government also doesn’t like to admit to problems with its military hardware. When it does—and that’s never guaranteed—the admissions often come months or years after problems come up.
The Liaoning battle group during sea trials. Photo via China Defense Blog. At top—Varyag under tow.
Photo via Naval War College/Wikimedia
During the accident, hot water and steam began “spewing” out of the engine’s oven compartment, Sina.com reported. One cabin became “instantly submerged in water vapor,” the report added.
The crew immediately evacuated the cabin, with one officer apparently pulling a sailor out by his collar to save him from the extremely hot steam. The carrier then lost power, but the crew “eventually restored power to ensure the smooth operation of the ship.”
Fortunately, this doesn’t appear to have been a catastrophic boiler failure of the kind that would unleash almost instantaneously lethal, high-pressure steam. It’s possible Liaoning instead suffered a low-pressure steam release involving a faulty heat exchanger. Vessels commonly use heat exchangers to control water temperature necessary for regulating internal power and heating.
The Chinese navy began modernizing the ex-Varyag in 2005—essentially rebuilding the carrier from the inside. New electronics, self-defense anti-aircraft guns and new engines were just some of the upgrades. The warship in her unimproved condition was a “basket case,” an unnamed officer told the Website.
Engine failures are not an unknown phenomenon aboard ex-Soviet carriers. The 40,000-ton displacement Indian carrier Vikramaditya—first a Soviet Kiev-class carrier commissioned in 1987 and sold in 2004—temporarily shut down at sea after a boiler overheated two years ago.
The 50,000-ton Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov also goes nowhere without a tug escort in case her engines break down while underway.
The Chinese navy isn’t going to get rid of Liaoning any time soon. She’s Beijing’s first serviceable carrier and the ship is a valuable resource for naval flight operations. Even if China never sends her into battle, she’s useful for training and learning how carriers work.
But powerplant problems can also make it so China can do little else. Failures can add costly repairs, shorten the vessel’s lifespan and force her to crawl along the water at slow speeds. Beijing also lacks large overseas naval bases—a necessity if trouble arises while Liaoning sails far from China’s shores.
If she ever does. Liaoning is more alike to its ex-Soviet cousins than different—confined to home ports and restricted from challenging rivals like India.
“Since China began to send navy convoys on anti-piracy missions to the Gulf of Aden and the Somali coast in 2008,” military analyst Liu Zhongmin wrote in Global Times in 2010. “The lack of overseas bases has emerged as a major impediment to the Chinese navy’s cruising efficiency.”
Now add the possibility of engine problems.
Remarkably good writeup. Much better than the usual.
(Must not have been written by a US ABCNNBCBS Obola-phile...
War Is Boring generally has good articles. Another decent site is this one.
>> “the machine oven compartment to the water pipes.”
Hey! That’s the same guy that writes the tech manuals that come with stuff you buy at Wal-Mart!
They need to steal more technology
Carriers on the cheap......A target not likely to be met.
Their main source Bill has been out of the loop for too long.
Sounds like a high water casualty or pipe failure in the super-heated steam area for the boiler based on the description.
They must be spending too much time on Chinese Fire Drills to keep the ship operating properly.
Though later they make it sound like a low-water casualty....
High water is worse for the turbines, low water is more likely to fail the boiler piping. They make it sound like the low water isn’t such a bad thing, but both take down the plant catastrophically. One requires a turbine refit, one a boiler piping refit. If steam broke out its was most likely a complete failure in one or the other.
On Independence two boilers per shaft/propeller. 8 boilers total.
"Live Stem"
Buying a former Russian carrier is about the worst thing any Navy could do.
India has spent a decade—and billions of dollars—trying to get “Vikramaditya” (a former Kiev-class helicopter carrier) back in service. They have discovered that many of the components were actually produced outside Russia and that some of the vendors are no longer in business. Of course, Moscow will be happy to fabricate a new component, but that will take time and Delhi pays through the nose.
Actually, I have very little sympathy for the Indians in this matter; they’ve been buying military hardware from Russia for decades and they know the “low” price gets you the tank, plane, ship or sub; if you want maintenance, spare parts and “service after the sale,” that will cost you more—a lot more in most cases.
It will be interesting to see how far the Chinese go in reverse-engineering their Russian-designed carrier. It will be difficult to project power to distant points on the globe if your battle group has to include a sea-going tug to pull the carrier when its boilers fail en masse.
I am surprised, considering the extensive rebuilding/reengineering the Chinese did do on this ship, that they did not choose to avoid the well-known problems attendant with high pressure steam (especially with Soviet designs) by installing the gas turbine/diesel electric combination being adopted for many modern warship designs.
Is it the case that a sufficiently large gas turbine/diesel electric combination simply is too large for the space that would be made available by removing the high pressure boilers and steam turbines?
A toy carrier built by those who "pretend to work because their employer pretends to pay" would just have to be more dangerous to its crew than anything else. Well, it would also be dangerous when it attempts to dock.
Confucius say man who buy used fishing boat get steamed clam.
Ping.
GTs are great for the smaller tonnage up to cruiser size, but there’s more than just moving the ship involved.
Carrier loads vary a significant amount more than a standard surface combatant with elevators, aircraft applications, arresting gear, etc. Of course, we also use steam for our catapult systems so it is almost a requirement to go that route for us.
From a propulsion standpoint GTs can be more efficient, but for pushing sheer mass steam is a more appropriate choice given the tradeoffs. Our decision to go nuclear power for the carriers was one of the best strategic moves ever made in my insignificant opinion.
She’ll get 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene. Put it in “H”.
The real problem, here, is built by those who "pretend to work because their employer pretends to pay.
If the Chicoms want a carrier they can trust, they'll have to build their own ... and do a better job than the Russians ever did. This beast may end up being an albatross around their necks.
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