Doomsday Bunker Upgrade Chapter 725: Foam metal
How to reduce the material cost of the dome has become the biggest headache for Chen Xin and the entire design team.
The original structure of the dome is mainly made of high-performance light steel as the main structural support, the EFTE airbag and the support structure are combined to form the main body of the dome, and the outer layer is covered with thermal insulation materials.
There is obviously nothing that can be adjusted and modified for the thermal insulation layer and EFTE airbag of the outer layer. When Chen Xin originally designed the dome, he had already done enough optimization, structure and materials for these two layers. are already optimal solutions.
So it's still the same sentence, unless you change the material, there is nothing to adjust.
And change the material... Not to mention how troublesome the research and development of a new material is, even if Chen Xin can come up with a new material through the system, the time between a material's invention in the laboratory and the large-scale industrial production, But there is still a long distance.
To study the production process, to develop production equipment, to build factories, to formulate technological processes...
It can be said that it can be as short as three or five years, or as long as more than ten years, before a new material can be transformed from a laboratory into an industrial product that can be mass-produced.
And that's why Chen Xin didn't upgrade the material of the dome through the system.
Replacement of a new material would indeed satisfy all requirements, but at the same time a new production line for the new material would need to be established.
Even if Chen Xin uses a system upgrade to transform the old production line into a new material production line, this is still not a small project. After all, Chen Xin can only solve the problems of production equipment, such as production process, process flow, process parameters He has no way to solve such problems, and still has to rely on other researchers to explore.
Although the problem of production equipment is the most troublesome of all problems in the application of new materials, it is also the most difficult to solve.
So although the development of a new material can solve all problems and meet the requirements of high-level executives, Chen Xin and the entire design team only take this solution as an alternative, in addition to allowing researchers to speed up the research progress in this area In addition, they still put their hopes on how to replace high-performance lightweight steel with existing cheap materials.
“The steel we use now is a special light-weight material. If we use ordinary steel or light-weight aluminum, the cost is only one-third of the current material. It can be said that this is the best solution at present.” Conference In the room, a researcher is explaining: "But if ordinary steel is used, the self-weight of the dome will increase by at least four times even if it is built according to the existing structure, and light aluminum can compress this ratio to two times. , but still beyond the safe load-bearing range of the support structure of the dome in the original design.”
Using ordinary steel or light-duty aluminum can effectively reduce costs, but because ordinary steel and light-duty aluminum are still heavier than the original high-performance light-duty steel, the self-weight of the dome will increase a lot.
It's not that the support structure can't bear it, but the excess weight undoubtedly increases the risk of the dome collapsing.
After all, this is a large dome shrouded in a city, and the entire weight is borne by the supporting structure itself. If the weight is too heavy, it will undoubtedly cause a great burden on the entire structure.
"And what about reinforcing the support structure?" someone suggested.
"Not very good. Reinforcing the support structure also means increasing the weight. It is better to add support columns." Someone on the side rejected the proposal.
"Adding support columns is feasible, but in that case, we will have to build tall buildings in the city and put the support points on the roof." A designer pressed twice on the table, and the crowd projected a He adjusted the design drawing and stereo projection of the dome, showing the pillars on it, and then continued: "In this way, the structure and strength of the dome can be guaranteed without problems, but these buildings are used as supporting points. The high-rise buildings have become a problem again.”
The designer didn't say what the problem was, but everyone who participated in the meeting understood what he meant, because if you want to build a high-rise building, you can't make yourself too heavy.
But this contradicts load-bearing. After all, these high-rise buildings are used as supporting columns for the entire dome. If they can't bear the load, it means nothing.
“How about pouring a few solid concrete pillars?” Some people obviously don’t give up on this. Since it’s not enough to build a high-rise building, they simply pour a few solid reinforced concrete support pillars.
"In that case, it would be meaningless to reduce the cost." The designer calculated the project cost and displayed it, causing everyone in the meeting to shake their heads.
Pouring reinforced concrete pillars is not just about building a shelf with steel bars and then pouring cement into it. It is not cheaper to build a reinforced concrete pillar the size of a high-rise building than to build several high-rise buildings.
Faced with such a result, everyone fell silent for a while.
Obviously, the solutions they can come up with now are not without solutions to the problem, but none of these solutions are not without flaws.
Finding a perfect solution to the problem while still meeting all requirements seems unlikely.
Just when everyone was thinking about whether to use a backup plan to replace the current high-strength light-weight steel with new materials, someone suddenly said tentatively: "Can you use foam metal?"
"Foam metal? Isn't it strong enough?" Someone who knew what foam metal was asked.
The so-called foam metal is a material obtained by processing ~IndoMTL.com~ through a special process to make the metal material contain foam pores.
This material is one of the new materials before the disaster. It has good air permeability and low density, and has certain strength, ductility and additivity, and can be used as a lightweight structural material.
This material has long been used in the core of aircraft clips, and in the aerospace and missile industries, metal foams are used as lightweight, heat-transferring support structures.
Because it can be welded, glued or electroplated to the structure, it can also be used as a sandwich load-bearing member.
"It sounds feasible, is there any information on this?" After hearing this suggestion, Chen Xin felt that it seemed feasible, but he didn't know much about this kind of material.
The person who made the suggestion hurriedly adjusted the data related to the foam metal and sent it to everyone.
Looking at the information about the foam metal material projected in front of him, Chen Xin felt that this material seemed to meet their needs.
So I thought about it and said: "It seems that foam metal can indeed be considered, then make a feasibility assessment for this material, and if it can be used, come up with a plan as soon as possible."