12-16-2018, 11:58 PM | #11 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] Nanocomposite and structural materials
Okay. Fine.
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12-17-2018, 01:09 AM | #12 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Spaceships] Nanocomposite and structural materials
I would note that Spaceships doesn't actually say that armor and structure are made of the same stuff, and in fact they probably aren't. However, given the general theme of UT, I would assume nanocomposite is a composite material that is at least partially carbon nanotubes, and since we have canonical references to space elevators, I'd assume fibers on the optimistic end of what can be done with carbon nanotubes (say, density 1.6g/cc, tensile strength 60 GPa) are available.
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12-17-2018, 01:01 PM | #13 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] Nanocomposite and structural materials
Right. I’m asking about the structural materials that are consistent with a technological base that uses nanocomposite etc. as armour. The density and tensile strength of nanocomposite etc. themselves would be worst case values.
I already have carbon nanotubes and a guesstimate for carbon nanotube FRP in my spreadsheet, but they are awfully good. Pure oriented buckytubes would be better than diamond, which I’d worry about because diamondoid is listed as a TL11 material. Buckytube FRP at TL10 also seems like a huge jump from aramid FRP at TL9.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 02-14-2019 at 06:47 PM. |
12-17-2018, 02:22 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Spaceships] Nanocomposite and structural materials
Depending on what 'better' you're talking about, that might or might not be true. On a nano scale single-walled carbon nanotubes have the highest ratio of tensile strength to weight of any conventional material we know of, by a quite large margin (though it's not clear that strength will ever be possible to demonstrate on a macro scale), but diamond is far superior for compressive strength and hardness.
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12-18-2018, 12:28 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] Nanocomposite and structural materials
Quote:
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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12-18-2018, 11:24 PM | #16 |
Join Date: Dec 2013
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Re: [Spaceships] Nanocomposite and structural materials
Ok, so one of the things to take into account is sabotage. And while I'm not a materials scientist, the relative densities suggests that diamond fragments will be worse
And while AFAIK early studies say breathing nanotubes is also bad for you, it also seems a lot more survivable than a storm of what's essentially worse-than-glass fragments, especially with TL10 medicine. That, and the nanotubes will be embedded in a composite; with the right composite, the material can deform and break with an explosion, rather than shatter. Making a non-brittle diamond-like substance that could be used as a structural material without those flaws seems fairly high-tech. TL11 suggests that it would require nanotech to arrange the atoms properly. |
Tags |
flat black, material strength, o'neill cylinder, orbital habitat, spaceships |
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