The flame of the main Olympic torch is as high as eight meters, which can’t be extinguished by heavy rain.

　　With an unprecedented fireworks feast at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese conquered the world with gorgeous fireworks last night, and the audience was amazed by the wonderful fireworks shapes. Zhao Weiping, the commander-in-chief of the Olympic opening ceremony "Bird’s Nest" and the Great Wall fireworks display implementation team, was excited and talked to reporters about the unknown story behind the fireworks.

　　No paper scraps

　　How to bloom peony without gunpowder smell

　　Environmental decryption 1

　　No paper scraps

　　At 11 o’clock last night, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games came to an end. The audience was surprised to find that there was not a scrap of paper or residue left in the fireworks display throughout the opening ceremony.

　　Zhao Weiping said that this is because a new type of environmental protection material has replaced the "paper pad pressure chamber" of traditional fireworks, thus ensuring that the fireworks can be completely decomposed and burned out at the moment of lighting.

　　Environmental decryption II

　　No smell of gunpowder

　　Last night, when the "Silver Waterfall" with a total length of more than 30 meters flowed down the bowl of the Bird’s Nest, it was as if a Milky Way was injected into the venue, and the passion quickly passed and surged in the venue. Fireworks were just around the corner, but the audience didn’t smell a pungent smell.

　　It turned out that the fireworks placed in the Bird’s Nest were not filled with gunpowder, but instead of gunpowder, compressed air was used through the technology of "Shenzhou VI Launch", and the compressed air and fireworks were ejected through electromagnetic valves.

　　Modeling decryption 1

　　How does peony bloom?

　　The first climax of the "Bird’s Nest" is to interpret the whole process of peony, the national flower, from budding to blooming, and suddenly the Bird’s Nest turns into a red ocean of peony. Zhao Weiping, chairman of the national brand Panda Fireworks Company, said that the blooming process of "Peony Blossom" took only 11 seconds, but the number of fireworks was 4,845.

　　Originally, in order to make the whole red peony cover the whole bird’s nest, the designer used computer three-dimensional special effects technology to draw a huge peony covering the roof of the "Bird’s Nest", and then selected 85 points on the roof of the "Bird’s Nest", each of which is responsible for emitting 3 petals, each of which consists of 29 fireworks, which symbolizes the 29th Olympic Games.

　　When setting off, according to the order from inside to outside, the "flower heart" is fired, and then the innermost "petal" is fired, and then it transitions to the outermost petal in turn. When the last petal is opened, 85 points are started at the same time to volley fireworks.

　　Modeling decryption 2

　　How to transfer the "Olympic rings"

　　That night, five circles of five colors, red, yellow, green, black and blue, appeared in the sky, and the five circles were connected with each other, showing the Olympic rings pattern.

　　Zhao Weiping introduced that the biggest difficulty in using fireworks to express the Olympic rings and other patterns is that it is difficult to control the initiation point and time interval of fireworks. The interval error of each fireworks cannot exceed 0.03 seconds, and the audience can see the circle and the five rings only when they are fired in series at a constant speed.

　　Modeling decryption 3

　　"Silver Waterfall"

　　How to flow into the stands

　　During the opening ceremony, there was a "silver waterfall" nearly 40 meters long, like the Milky Way, which slowly hung down along the bowl of the "Bird’s Nest" and flowed into the stadium. The "Bird’s Nest" stand immediately turned into a silver hall.

　　Zhao Weiping said that the diameter of the bowl of the "Bird’s Nest" is about 500 meters, more than 40 meters above the ground. This shape requires that the diameter of the "Silver Waterfall" should not be less than 500 meters and the length should not be less than 30 meters, so that the audience can be there.

　　Modeling decryption 4

　　How does the "dove of peace" spread its wings?

　　Careful viewers will find that a pair of snow-white wings were born on both sides of the "Bird’s Nest", flapping up and down, just like a dove spreading its wings and flying.

　　Zhao Weiping told reporters that it is not difficult for the "Bird’s Nest" to give birth to "wings". What is difficult is that the wings should be flapped up and down, showing a dove of peace spreading its wings and flying dynamically. In order to make this dove of peace "smart", the researchers first improved the discharge effect of the traditional fireworks element "white tail", which has only white light and no track left by the tail passing through the air, just like the wings of the dove of peace. In order to make the wings move, the researchers calculated the flapping frequency of the flying dove of peace, so that the "Bird’s Nest dove of peace" fluttered its wings once every second on average.

　　Modeling decryption 5

　　How does the "Red Flash Bird’s Nest" feel dynamic?

　　A red silk thread in the night sky, passing through the "Bird’s Nest", is flashing like a red neon lamp. Under its embellishment, the whole "Bird’s Nest" is flashing, running and jumping.

　　Zhao Weiping said that the first difficulty of the "Red Flash Bird’s Nest" lies in the layout. In order to cover the entire "Bird’s Nest", a launching point should be set up every five meters on each main beam; At the junction of the two main beams, a launching point is also set up every five meters, and all launching points are evenly distributed, so that the whole "Bird’s Nest" can jump in the red ocean; The second difficulty lies in the time difference control, and the fireworks at each point must be lit and extinguished at the same time.

　　Modeling decryption 6

　　How to open Tianmen

　　There was a scene in the opening ceremony: a magnificent arched gate appeared over the "Bird’s Nest". From closing the door and opening a crack to opening half and three quarters until the Golden Gate finally opens. Zhao Weiping said, "Opening the Tianmen Gate" is difficult to measure in the distance and angle between the ground and air. The distance between the first group of emission points and the angle with the horizontal plane must ensure that the emitted fireworks meet in the air and hand over an arch; The distance and horizontal angle between the second group of fireworks must ensure that when the fireworks meet in the air, there is just a gap, just like the door has just opened a gap, and so on. If the angle is a little bit biased, the process of opening the door cannot be vividly reproduced.

　　Modeling decryption 7

　　How does the countdown work?

　　9, 8, 7 … When the opening ceremony started, the first thing in the air was flashing numbers. Zhao Weiping introduced that the number nine drawn with fireworks stays in the air for no less than one second. As soon as the number nine goes out, it lights up at eight and flashes again for one second. "If the number stays even in the blink of an eye, the fireworks will not draw a countdown stopwatch.".

　　Our reporter Wang Yuwen/Zhang Fengshe J178

　　The flame is eight meters high.

　　Can resist ten winds.

　　Olympic main torch

　　Secret of combustion system

　　Last night, Xu Tong, deputy commander of the torch project for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games and director of the dispatching center of Beijing Gas Group, revealed that the flame of the main torch of this Olympic Games was accurate to 8 meters high and 4 meters wide. The main torch can resist 10 winds and 80 mm rainstorm per hour. Because the torch is also equipped with lightning protection device, it can prevent lightning strike and can "turn off without noise"

　　The flame height is 8 meters.

　　Xu Tong said that the torch of the main Olympic venue consists of three parts, including the torch head, gas pipeline and control system. The key to determine its shape and color lies in the torch burner, which is made up of hundreds of burning holes arranged in rows, grouped and segmented into a disk shape, forming a three-dimensional shape with a height difference of 1.6 meters together, and spiraling up.

　　Due to the spiral shape of the torch, there is a height difference of 1.6 meters between the high and low burning points of the torch, which is very different from the flat disc burner of the torch in the past. Xu Tong said that in order to ensure the visual effect of the flame shape of the torch burning, the torch team cooperated with the overall structural modeling in the design to set up the gas supply cavity of the burning device in sections, grouped and combined, and controlled and adjusted the torch burning in sections, so that the flame shape was more consistent with the structure, thus concentrating the firepower to the maximum extent, making the flame shape complete and coherent, and the height reached more than 8 meters, which greatly enhanced the appreciation.

　　Rainstorm can’t be extinguished

　　In order to improve the rain resistance of the main torch

　　Yes, in the design, the researchers increased the gas supply pressure, thus increasing the outlet flow rate of the burner and improving the stability of the flame under bad weather conditions. During the rain-proof test of the burning device, the lighted torch has withstood the test of "artificial rainfall" environment created by six groups of fire-fighting high-pressure water guns, ensuring that the torch still keeps normal combustion in the rainstorm weather with rainfall of 80 mm per hour, which is higher than the rainfall requirement of 60 mm per hour of the Olympic Organizing Committee.

　　In addition, in order to meet the wind resistance requirements of the main torch proposed by the Olympic Organizing Committee, the torch design team installed a special wind protection device in the combustion system. The field simulated artificial wind tunnel test shows that the torch has the ability to resist the wind equivalent to 10 winds.

　　Gas supply double insurance

　　Xu Tong said that all the gas and electrical systems of the main torch of the Olympic Games are designed and installed in a two-way and double-insurance way, which can ensure the normal operation of the torch combustion control system. Power failure all the way will not affect the combustion of the main torch, and even the gas supply is dual-mode.

　　It is reported that in order to cooperate with the opening and closing ceremony operation center to complete the torch physical test and realize the mobile emergency gas supply for the main torch, the torch team of Beijing Gas Group organized the design of special pressure regulating equipment for the pneumatic source of large-flow vehicle-mounted compressor, and the compressed natural gas will be used as the emergency standby gas source for the main Olympic venue and other urban areas.

Editor: Zhao Deli