|
|
Post by trevlite on Oct 23, 2016 2:21:25 GMT
I want to know if any materials are dominated by any others for a single application
What I mean by dominating is that the material is superior in all of the relevant attributes for the role. Lithium 6 is dominated by regular lithium for nonnuclear applications since it has the same properties except that it is more expensive. Some attributes do not have a simple more (or les) is better relationships (for armor high and low density both have pros and cons).
|
|
|
|
Post by RA2lover on Oct 23, 2016 2:47:35 GMT
UHMWPE allows you to make the lightest fuel tanks possible. Lithium beats out anything else in terms of mass. Lithium-6 is the best radiation shield material(assuming it's being used on a surface cold enough to not melt). Osmium is the best material for 2cm/s flares in terms of energy released per volume. Lithium gets you better energy released by mass. Tantalum Hafnium Carbide has the highest melting point(though its material properties are rather lacking). Borosilicate glass is the best material for launchers(at least until its conductivity is fixed). Liquid sodium is the best coolant assuming you aren't restricted by criticality.
There's a lot of things some materials are better at than others.
|
|
|
|
Post by captinjoehenry on Oct 23, 2016 3:00:29 GMT
UHMWPE allows you to make the lightest fuel tanks possible. Lithium beats out anything else in terms of mass. Lithium-6 is the best radiation shield material(assuming it's being used on a surface cold enough to not melt). Osmium is the best material for 2cm/s flares in terms of energy released per volume. Lithium gets you better energy released by mass. Tantalum Hafnium Carbide has the highest melting point(though its material properties are rather lacking). Borosilicate glass is the best material for launchers(at least until its conductivity is fixed). Liquid sodium is the best coolant assuming you aren't restricted by criticality. There's a lot of things some materials are better at than others. The only issue with UHMWPE is that it is fairly costly actually. You can get almost the exact same weight tank with boron and it'll be a fair bit cheaper. |
|
|
|
Post by goduranus on Oct 23, 2016 13:48:39 GMT
ethane can be a slightly better coolant for small reactors due to being lighter, and also for launchers that would fire too fast if using sodium.
Zirconium copper is the best material for making rails and coils, whatever borosilicate glass doesn't have the strength for.
Silica aerogel is the best armor material for resisting lasers and nukes.
Best engine bell material for normal rockets seems to be boron, tougher and higher melting point material don't really seem to help. Though if if you are not concerned about weight, and keep getting messages about chamber cracking, diamond is much stronger and more heat resistant.
Using borosilicate glass is cheating, I wikied it and it's just regular glass, there probably was just a minus sign mistake as real borosilicate glass has huge electricial resistance. Though if you use it, you can make launchers with very little heat so a huge missile ship only puts out like 100kws, this lets you use tiny and long lasting flare decoys.
What's the best stuff to make radiators out of for resisting nukes? I've tried a bunch of high melting materials, but Silicon Carbide that stock radiators are made out of have been the best.
|
|
|
|
Post by trevlite on Oct 23, 2016 16:30:13 GMT
For pumps i go with lithium, Aluminum or boron depending on the temperature and stress.
For reaction wheels lithium, boron, aluminum, platinum or cadmium depending on power and mass that can be spared.
Osmium is great since it is so dense but iridium is slightly cheaper if only density is important.
Allways try boron and the carbon allotropes since they are strong, light and work at high temperatures.
Many of the materials seem inferior to all of the others in all applications. As a challenge (because it will be a long of work) try to see if under what condition you would use each of the materials.
|
|
|
|
Post by goduranus on Oct 23, 2016 20:14:29 GMT
U-233 dioxide trumps all other reactor fuels, since it's cheap and you can make it as hot as you like with enrichment and neutron flux.
U-233 is usually the best material for bombs, since it's cheaper, but some people prefer plutonium 239 for small bombs, honestly not worth it imo, since small bombs are less efficient.
13kg bombs are 3kt, but 90kg bombs are 800kt, with 6 times the mass you can 200 times the yield, which can achieve equivalent flux from 14 times further.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pttg on Oct 28, 2016 18:45:40 GMT
Are lithium and boron broken somehow? It seems crazy that it's a perfect engine bell, turbopump, and aftershave, but nobody uses it IRL.
|
|
|
|
Post by captinjoehenry on Oct 28, 2016 18:57:27 GMT
Are lithium and boron broken somehow? It seems crazy that it's a perfect engine bell, turbopump, and aftershave, but nobody uses it IRL. The situation with boron is that it is a very good material and it is widely used in combination with other things but making pure Boron is quite difficult due to impurities and contaminations. So if we are assuming better production that can eliminate impurities in boron it would be much more widely used. |
|
erin
Junior Member
Smash Mouth Plays From The Depths Of Hell As You Traverse A Deep, Rat-Infested Cave
Posts: 57 
|
Post by erin on Oct 28, 2016 22:09:07 GMT
also, lithium is an alkali metal, highly reactive. it's soft enough to cut with a knife, and if you used it in pure form to build an engine IRL it would probably explode as soon as you activated it
|
|
|
|
Post by captinjoehenry on Oct 29, 2016 1:07:54 GMT
also, lithium is an alkali metal, highly reactive. it's soft enough to cut with a knife, and if you used it in pure form to build an engine IRL it would probably explode as soon as you activated it More likely it would just collapse under its own weight into a vaguely engine shaped pile of lithium. |
|
|
|
Post by nerd1000 on Oct 29, 2016 11:46:50 GMT
Are lithium and boron broken somehow? It seems crazy that it's a perfect engine bell, turbopump, and aftershave, but nobody uses it IRL. Boron is used in the form of boron fiber reinforced plastic, but the stuff is very expensive so it only sees use in high-end applications like fighter jets. Based on some quick reading the mechanical properties of the fiber composite are even better than the amorphous element in many respects. |
|
|
|
Post by leerooooooy on Oct 29, 2016 17:10:58 GMT
U-233 dioxide trumps all other reactor fuels, since it's cheap and you can make it as hot as you like with enrichment and neutron flux. U-233 is usually the best material for bombs, since it's cheaper, but some people prefer plutonium 239 for small bombs, honestly not worth it imo, since small bombs are less efficient. 13kg bombs are 3kt, but 90kg bombs are 800kt, with 6 times the mass you can 200 times the yield, which can achieve equivalent flux from 14 times further. do you have a 90kg design that good? |
|
|
|
Post by cuddlefish on Oct 29, 2016 18:11:17 GMT
U-233 dioxide trumps all other reactor fuels, since it's cheap and you can make it as hot as you like with enrichment and neutron flux. U-233 is usually the best material for bombs, since it's cheaper, but some people prefer plutonium 239 for small bombs, honestly not worth it imo, since small bombs are less efficient. 13kg bombs are 3kt, but 90kg bombs are 800kt, with 6 times the mass you can 200 times the yield, which can achieve equivalent flux from 14 times further. That being said, there are certainly applications where you need a weapon of a given mass or less - high performance missiles, cannon launched charges, etc. Not every use case has the ability to soak 90, or even 13, extra kilos of dry mass. |
|
|
|
Post by jonen on Oct 29, 2016 19:41:39 GMT
also, lithium is an alkali metal, highly reactive. it's soft enough to cut with a knife, and if you used it in pure form to build an engine IRL it would probably explode as soon as you activated it You think that's bad, the game has no problem letting you build propellant tanks out of lithium. And water as the propellant. |
|
|
|
Post by wafflestoo on Oct 29, 2016 20:08:08 GMT
also, lithium is an alkali metal, highly reactive. it's soft enough to cut with a knife, and if you used it in pure form to build an engine IRL it would probably explode as soon as you activated it You think that's bad, the game has no problem letting you build propellant tanks out of lithium. And water as the propellant. I am laughing at the mental image of this waaaaaay more than I should be  |
|
