Chapter 220: Chapter 216: Tunnel Boring Machine
The original concentric circle layout of the town in the design plan was modified into a spiral shape.
The entire town resembles an ever-elongating spring, with all buildings arranged around spiral-shaped streets, and at the center of the spiral streets stands a geothermal tower.
"Interesting, does it spiral downward infinitely?" Perfikot gazed at the modified structure, showing a look of interest.
Designing the streets to extend in a spiral is intriguing because it allows for continuous downward extension as needed.
Unlike a flat circle, which requires carving out a new circle beneath the existing one to extend and expand.
The spiral street structure simplifies expansion; you only need to continue digging downward at the end, making it very convenient for structural extension.
Moreover, the spiral structure also has the advantage of allowing horizontal expansion.
It’s similar to how a spring extends in the horizontal plane and can be continuously expanded, making it much more convenient structure-wise compared to circular designs.
"With this kind of structure, one wouldn’t need to build large-scale plans initially; future town expansion becomes quite facilitated, needing only street extensions. You can even expand into a second layer, simply by excavating a spiral street." Perfikot quickly grasped the benefits of this structure and praised it greatly.
The advantage of the spiral structure lies here; once the central geothermal tower is managed, residents can independently tackle the extension and expansion of the spiral structure.
Such an approach significantly reduces early construction investment for the town, saving time and resources for shelter construction.
"It seems solving the geothermal tower is the remaining task here." Perfikot continued fiddling with the drawings, soon magnifying the portion depicting the geothermal tower.
Perfikot’s original design for the geothermal tower was essentially a circulating water pump, driven by steam to continuously pump hot water from the underground while injecting cooled water to achieve circulation; it wasn’t highly efficient utilization of geothermal energy but managed to meet usage needs sufficiently.
After all, Perfikot didn’t use the open-ended heating system from the original world game, improving thermal energy utilization efficiency considerably. As long as underground geothermal resources suffice, heating in a closed environment becomes adequate.
However, Perfikot also considered that with town expansion, a single geothermal tower might not support the heating needs post-expansion.
Moreover, a crucial point to consider is the environmental temperature continuously declining.
According to predictions, Earth’s core will freeze within the next three hundred years, meaning even geothermal resources will soon deplete.
After all, when the Earth’s core freezes, extracting hot water from underground becomes an unrealistic endeavor.
Fortunately, this issue doesn’t require immediate attention; currently, Perfikot’s primary focus remains on shelter construction, even allowing heating concerns to be slightly delayed.
When temperatures haven’t reached extreme lows, the underground shelter itself benefits from layer-provided insulation effects.
It’s akin to how cellar temperatures naturally exceed external coldness during winter, effectively using layer insulation.
According to Perfikot’s calculations, and previous tests at the Eagle’s Beak Cliff base, constructing shelters deeper than three meters generally guarantees indoor temperatures remain above freezing.
Of course, this remains an ideal state; actual temperature variations require assessment based on different regional conditions.
Just as Eagle’s Beak Cliff’s underground features geothermal bands offering higher ground temperatures compared to fjord regions, fjord regions necessitate deeper construction or heating equipment to compensate for temperature disparity.
However, generally speaking, descending one meter usually increases the ground temperature by 0.03℃. Without geothermal resource impacts, generally underground at twenty meters achieves constant temperature layers unaffected by surface environmental temperatures.
In constant temperature layers, ground temperatures typically stabilize between 10-20℃ depending on latitude; the Northern Territory near the Arctic results in temperatures hovering around 10℃.
Thus, construct shelters at twenty-meter depths while incorporating insulation and ventilation to ensure temperatures remain comfortably non-cold.
In the original world before crossing, constructing at such depths wasn’t challenging; various engineering machinery ensured construction proceeded smoothly.
But in Perfikot’s current world, without her intervention, construction at this depth... not impossible, just very slow and fraught with difficulties.
"In this case, perhaps I should design a shield tunneling machine capable of spiraling downward?" Perfikot considered the spiral shelter structures depicted in the design, suddenly struck by a thought.
Driven by the idea, Perfikot quickly reached for a blank sheet and began sketching out her concept on the paper.
The shield tunneling machine, regarded as the jewel on the industrial crown in Perfikot’s original world, actually wasn’t a new invention; it had been developed in the late 18th century for underground tunneling.
Although early shield tunneling machines were quite primitive compared to later versions showcasing vast differences.
From Perfikot’s perspective, the structure of a shield tunneling machine isn’t particularly complex; the most critical component lies in the drilling device at the front-end. For a master of Alchemy and Engineering, this poses no challenge.
Utilizing her knowledge of modern shield tunneling machine structures seen in her original world, Perfikot easily designed a prototype capable of spiraling downward.
However, this design remains merely a draft, not even qualifying as a prototype.
It comprises only an enclosed drilling shield casing and a steam-driven drilling head, devoid of other structures.
While possessing these functionalities renders the shield tunneling machine usable, it’s only adept at digging soil; encountering underground water infiltration or gas leaks presents unresolved issues for such a rudimentary machine.
Furthermore, an important aspect is that shield tunneling machines don’t serve merely drilling purposes; simultaneous wall construction during drilling is essential.
These are aspects Perfikot needs to continuously refine and improve in subsequent designs.