Doomsday Bunker Upgrade

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 is mainly composed of high-performance light steel as the main structural support, the EFTE airbag and the supporting 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 in the outer thermal insulation layer and the EFTE airbag. When Chen Xin originally designed the dome, he had already done enough optimization for these two layers, and the structure and materials were already Optimal solution.

So again, unless you change the material, 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 come up with a new material through the system, there is still a difference between a material's invention in the laboratory and large-scale industrial production. very 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 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.

Replacing a new material can indeed meet all requirements, but the corresponding need is to build a new production line for the new material.

Even if Chen Xin transforms the old production line into a new material production line by means of system upgrade, 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 and so on. He has no way to solve the problem, 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 one of the most difficult to solve.

Therefore, although developing a new material can solve all problems and meet the requirements put forward by the high-level, 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, 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." In the conference 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. Light aluminum can compress this ratio to two times, but still It exceeds the safe load-bearing range of the dome's supporting structure in the original design."

The use of ordinary steel or light-duty aluminum can indeed effectively reduce costs, but because the weight of ordinary steel and light-duty aluminum is 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 excessive weight undoubtedly increases the risk of the dome collapsing.

After all, this is a large dome shrouded in a city, and 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 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 have to build tall buildings in the city and put the support points on the roof." A designer pressed the table twice, and the design of the dome was projected in front of everyone. Drawing and stereo projection, he adjusted the design drawing, 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 high-rise buildings as supporting points are not. 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 the supporting columns of the entire dome. If they cannot 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 is not enough to build a high-rise building, they will simply pour a few solid reinforced concrete support pillars.

"In that case, it would be meaningless to reduce the cost." The designer calculated the cost of the project 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 that can solve the problem, but none of these solutions are not without defects.

It seems impossible to find a perfect solution to the problem that meets all requirements at the same time.

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 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 small density, and has certain strength, ductility and additivity, and can be used as a lightweight structural material.

The 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 made into 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 material.

The person who made the suggestion hurriedly adjusted the data related to 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, so make a feasibility assessment for this material, and if it can be used, come up with a plan as soon as possible."