I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 827 - 725: Metal Foam

How to reduce the material costs of the dome became the most troubling issue for Chen Xin and the entire design team.

The original dome structure was mainly supported by high-performance lightweight steel, with EFTE air cushions integrated with the support structure to form the main body of the dome, and the outer layer covered with thermal insulation materials.

Among them, the outer thermal insulation layer and the EFTE air cushions apparently had no room for adjustment or modification; Chen Xin had already optimized these two layers sufficiently in the initial design of the dome, both in terms of structure and materials, resulting in the optimal solution.

So, as the saying goes, unless the materials are changed, there is nothing much to adjust.

And changing materials... not to mention how troublesome the development of a new material is. Even if Chen Xin could come up with a new material through the system, there is still a vast distance between the invention of a material in the lab and its mass production at an industrial scale.

One has to research manufacturing processes, develop production equipment, establish factories, and formulate process flows...

It can be said that it takes a short period of three to five years, or as long as a decade or more, for a new material to transform from a laboratory invention to an industrial product ready for mass production.

And this is precisely why Chen Xin did not choose to upgrade the dome’s materials through the system.

Replacing with a new material could indeed meet all the requirements, but correspondingly, it would require setting up a new production line for the new material.

Even if Chen Xin used the system to upgrade and transform the old production line into one for the new material, it still wouldn’t be a small project. After all, Chen Xin could only solve the issues with production equipment; he couldn’t tackle problems like production processes, workflows, and process parameters, which still rely on other researchers to figure out.

Though issues with production equipment are the most troublesome and challenging ones among all the problems associated with the application of new materials.

So even though developing a new material could solve all the issues and meet the requirements proposed by the authorities, Chen Xin and the entire design team still only considered this as a backup plan. Besides pushing researchers to speed up progress in this area, they mainly focused on how to replace high-performance lightweight steel with existing cheaper materials.

"The steel we are currently using is a special lightweight material. If ordinary steel or lightweight aluminum is used, the cost is only a third of what we are using now. This can be said to be the best solution for the current situation." In the meeting room, a researcher explained: "However, if ordinary steel is used, even if the existing structure is followed, the weight of the dome will increase by at least four times. Lightweight aluminum can reduce this ratio to two times, but it still exceeds the safety load limit of the support structure in the original design."

Using ordinary steel or lightweight aluminum can effectively reduce costs, but because they are still heavier than the originally used high-performance lightweight steel, the weight of the dome would increase significantly.

It’s not that the support structure can’t bear the weight, but that excessive weight undoubtedly increases the risk of the dome collapsing.

After all, this is a large dome covered over a city, with all the weight borne by the support structure itself. If the weight is too heavy, it would undoubtedly place an enormous burden on the entire structure. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

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

"Not possible. Reinforcing the support structure also means increasing weight, so it’s better to add support pillars," someone beside them dismissed the suggestion.

"Adding support pillars is feasible, but in that case, we would have to build high-rise buildings in the city to place the support points on top," a designer tapped the table twice, and a projection of the dome’s design and a 3D rendering appeared in front of everyone. He adjusted the design, showing the support pillars, and continued, "Doing so can ensure the dome’s structure and strength won’t have issues, but those buildings used as support points became a problem."

The designer didn’t specify the problem, but everyone present understood what he meant, as building high towers requires them to not be too heavy themselves.

But that contradicts the load-bearing requirement since these towers need to serve as the support pillars for the entire dome. If they can’t bear the load, they serve no purpose.

"What about casting solid concrete pillars?" someone was clearly unwilling to give up. Since building towers was infeasible, they suggested casting solid reinforced concrete support pillars, certain that they could bear the load.

"Then reducing costs makes no sense," the designer calculated the project costs and displayed them, causing everyone present to shake their heads.

Casting reinforced concrete pillars isn’t just about building a frame with steel and pouring in concrete; constructing a reinforced concrete pillar as large as a high-rise building wouldn’t be cheaper than building several high-rise buildings.

Faced with such results, everyone fell into silence for a while.

Evidently, while they could think of solutions to the problem, all of these plans had flaws.

Finding a perfect solution that also meets all the requirements seems unlikely.

Just as everyone was contemplating whether to adopt the backup plan and replace the current high-strength lightweight steel with new materials, someone tentatively asked, "What about using foam metal?"

"Foam metal? Isn’t the strength insufficient?" someone familiar with foam metal questioned.

Foam metal refers to a type of material processed through special techniques so that the metal has foam pores.

This material is one of the new materials from before the disaster, with good permeability, low density, and possessing certain strength and ductility, making it suitable as a lightweight structural material.

This material was used early on as the core material in airplane composite components. In aerospace and missile industries, foam metal is used as lightweight, heat-transfer structural support.

Since it can be welded, glued, or plated onto structures, it can also be made into sandwich load-bearing components.

"It sounds feasible. Is there any information on this?" Hearing the suggestion, Chen Xin found it plausible, though he wasn’t familiar with this material.

The person who made the suggestion quickly brought up the relevant information on foam metal and presented it to everyone.

Looking at the projected information on foam metal in front of him, Chen Xin thought this material might meet their needs.

He thought it over and said, "It seems that foam metal is indeed something we can consider, so let’s conduct a feasibility assessment on this material. If feasible, let’s quickly come up with a plan."