Pretty disappointing that a ship design finalised in the late 2000s wasn't already intended to accommodate a larger helicopter in future.
Pretty disappointing that a ship design finalised in the late 2000s wasn't already intended to accommodate a larger helicopter in future.
The hanger would be over the propulsion area, particularly over the drive shaft and train, transmission. This would be the perfect spot to add generators and electric motors.
Designing warships isn't like messing around with Lego
The gensets have to be co-located with the GTs/Diesels (much further forward near the funnel i.e. ahead of the rear VLS)
There's no need for gearboxes/clutches/transmission sets with electric motors
With pure electric drive, you can typically get away with shorter shafts for better survivability against damage but conversely need to ensure the HV wiring between the gensets and motors are well protected which has implications for the bulkheads between them, i.e. if you are going to plonk the electric motors further back in the stern you'll need to route the HV cables through more bulkheads in a manner that avoids impairing survivability from battle damage.
To support a larger helicopter means a bigger flight deck, to allow sufficient clearance/safety, the length of the hangar itself assuming the Chinese designers are as proficient at origami as other Naval helicopter designers doesn't necessarily need to grow as much, especially since the width of the existing hangar doesn't appear to be the full beam of the ship and looks tall and narrow with large full length cutouts either side in the roofline.
Actually, lengthening a ship is probably one of the smallest possible structural changes. There is no reason to believe the PLAN lengthened the 052D for any other purpose than to accommodate a larger hangar and/or a larger flight deck. The structural changes that arrived with the Flight IIA Burkes did nothing more and nothing less than exactly this.Lengthening a ship is no small change, and given that the 052D is primarily an AAW DDG, I don’t think adding a better ASW helicopter would have justified such a big change.
Much more likely that they lengthened the hull for another reason (IEPS?), which allowed them to add a bigger hanger as an added bonus.
You would think this would be the case, but in fact you should look at some schematics of the Daring class and note where the electric motors are and how long the drive shafts are.True, generators need to be located right next after the GTs and diesels. But electric motors need to be near the propellers. You want the shafts as short as possible to incur the least amount of friction and vibration, which to incur maximum efficiency and with the side benefit of less noise for ASW work.