Chapter 828: Foam metal

How to reduce the material cost of the dome has become the most troublesome

thing for Chen Xin and the entire design team.

The original structure of the dome was mainly supported by high-performance

light steel, the EFTE airbag and the supporting structure were combined to

form the main body of the dome, and the outer layer was covered with thermal

insulation materials.

Among them, the outer thermal insulation layer and the EFTE airbag obviously

have nothing to adjust and modify. When Chen Xin initially designed the dome,

he had already made enough optimizations for these two layers, and the

structure and materials were already the same. Optimal solution.

So it's the same sentence, unless the material is changed, there is nothing to

adjust.

And changing materials...not to mention how troublesome it is to develop a new

material. Even if Chen Xin can create a new material through the system, there

is still a lot of difference between the invention of a material in the

laboratory and the large-scale industrial production. Far away.

To study the production process, to develop production equipment, to establish

a factory, to formulate the process flow...

It can be said that it takes as short as three to five years, and as long as

ten years, before a new material can be transformed from a laboratory into an

industrial product that can be mass-produced.

And this is why Chen Xin didn't upgrade the material of the dome through the

system.

Replacing a new type of material can indeed meet all requirements, but it

corresponds to the need to establish a new new material production line.

Even if Chenxin 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, Chenxin can only solve the problems of production equipment, such as

production technology, process flow, process parameters, etc. He had no way to

solve the problem, and he still had to rely on other researchers to explore.

Although the problem of production equipment is the most troublesome of all

the problems in the application of new materials, it is also the most

difficult to solve.

Therefore, although the development of a new material can solve all problems

and meet the requirements raised by the senior management, Chen Xin and the

entire design team only took this plan as an alternative plan, in addition to

allowing researchers to speed up the research progress in this area, They

still put more hope on how to use existing cheap materials to replace high-

performance lightweight steel.

"The steel we use now is a special lightweight material. If we use ordinary

steel or lightweight aluminum, the cost is only one-third of the current

material. It can be said that this is the best solution at present." In the

meeting room, A researcher is explaining: "But if ordinary steel is used, the

weight of the dome will be increased by at least four times even if the dome

is built according to the existing structure. Lightweight aluminum can reduce

this ratio to twice, but still It exceeds the safe bearing range of the

supporting structure of the dome in the original design."

The use of ordinary steel or light aluminum can indeed effectively reduce

costs, but because the weight of ordinary steel and light aluminum is still

heavier than the original high-performance light steel, the self-weight of the

dome will increase a lot.

It's not that the supporting structure can't bear the burden, but the

excessive weight will undoubtedly increase the risk of collapse of the dome.

After all, this is a large dome shrouded in a city. All the 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.

"What about reinforcing the supporting structure?" someone suggested.

"Not so good. Strengthening the support structure also means adding weight. It

is better to add support columns." Someone on the side rejected this proposal.

"It is possible to add support columns, but in that case, we 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 design of the dome was projected in front

of everyone. He adjusted the design drawings and showed the pillars on the

drawings and stereo projections, and then continued: “In this way, the

structure and strength of the dome can be guaranteed without any problems, but

these tall buildings as supporting points It became 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 a tall building wants to be

built high, it can't make itself too heavy.

But this is in contradiction with load-bearing. After all, these tall

buildings are to be used as the supporting pillars of the entire dome. If they

cannot bear the load, then there is no meaning.

"How about pouring a few solid concrete pillars?" Someone obviously didn't

give up on this. Since building a tall building is not good, they simply pour

a few solid reinforced concrete support pillars.

"In that case, it would be meaningless to reduce costs." The designer

calculated the project cost and showed it, and all the participants could not

help shaking their heads.

Pouring reinforced concrete pillars is not a matter of just using steel bars

to build a shelf, and then pour cement into it. It is not cheaper to build a

reinforced concrete pillar the size of a tall building than to build a few

tall buildings.

Faced with this result, everyone fell silent for a while.

Obviously, although the methods they can come up with now are not that there

are no solutions that can solve the problem, but all of these solutions have

shortcomings.

It seems impossible to find a perfect solution to the problem while still

satisfying all the requirements.

When everyone was wondering whether to adopt a backup plan to replace the

current high-strength lightweight steel with new materials, someone suddenly

said tentatively: "Can foam metal work?"

"Metal foam? Isn't it strong enough?" Someone who knows what metal foam is

questioned.

The so-called foam metal is processed through a special process, a material

obtained by making 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 as the core material of aircraft sandwiches.

In the aerospace and missile industries, foamed metal is used as a

lightweight, heat-transfer supporting structure.

Because it can be welded, glued or electroplated to the structure, it can also

be made into a sandwich bearing member.

"It sounds feasible. Is there any information on this?" Chen Xin thought it

seemed feasible when he heard this suggestion, but he didn't understand this

kind of material.

The person who made the suggestion hurriedly tuned out the information related

to the metal foam, and then sent it to everyone.

Looking at the materials related to the metal foam 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 foamed metal can indeed be

considered. Then conduct a feasibility assessment for this material. If it can

be used, come up with a plan as soon as possible."