Starting from a top student and marching towards the sea of ​​stars

Chapter 445 The unity of macro and micro

After a few people chatted for a while, the topic returned to Ning Chen and Song Xiyun.

"Teacher Ning, Teacher Song, according to the first stage of the Sci-Fi Island experience time, your experience should not be over yet. Why did you come back early?"

Xu Zhou's question was also a question raised by others in the materials laboratory. Everyone focused their attention on Ning Chen and Song Xiyun, waiting for their answers.

"Yes, I was just about to tell you about this. Recently, Xingchen Technology has a new project, and one of its branch research projects requires us to study together."

Hearing that there was a new topic for them to research, everyone felt very excited and quickly asked Ning Chen what research topic it was.

"The new project launched this time is space elevator technology, and what we need to do is to research materials suitable for manufacturing space elevators. This topic is not easy to research, so we all need to work together..."

Everyone was very surprised to learn that the research project Ning Chen was about to launch this time turned out to be a project of the level of the space ladder, and it was incredible to see such rapid development.

"Teacher Ning, I didn't expect that after seeing you for a few months, you would start building a space elevator. If this research is really realized, it will be much more convenient for us to go to space in the future."

Just as the term "space elevator" gives people the first impression, this technology allows people to go to space directly through the elevator. The cost and efficiency of going to space will be significantly improved than before.

By that time, it will be almost as easy for humans to go to space as going home, without the need for various rocket launches and other processes as before.

However, considering what Ning Chen has done over the years, the establishment of the space elevator project is completely reasonable. Even if Ning Chen does not carry out this project now, he will still conduct research on this project sooner or later in the future.

"Yes, this is a key technology necessary for human development in the space field. As for the overall design of the space elevator, Song Xiyun and I have basically completed it before. Now I will give you a brief introduction to our plan. Design ideas..."

In fact, as researchers in the field of materials, they do not need to know the overall design ideas of the space elevator in such detail, but Ning Chen still hopes that everyone can understand the overall plan of the space elevator as much as possible. Ning Chen feels that This allows them to better participate in the design of materials.

After listening to Ning Chen's introduction, Pierce couldn't help but take the lead and said:
"Teacher Ning, I think the materials used to build space elevators are very similar to the nanowire materials we have come across before. If we develop according to the ideas of this material, we should be able to complete the research on this project faster. …”

In fact, Pierce didn't want to mention this incident casually. After all, this incident would involve a bad memory. This incident almost caused Pierce and Ning Chen to bid farewell to this world.

But considering the importance of the space elevator research project, Pierce still had no hesitation. As long as Pierce felt that it would be helpful to this research project, Pierce would do it without hesitation.

Pierce's words also reminded everyone of the project that the Materials Science Laboratory had studied, and they realized that there were indeed many similarities between the two.

Naturally, Ning Chen had already thought of this. After hearing Pierce's words, Ning Chen nodded and affirmed:
"Yes, Pierce, there are indeed certain similarities between the two materials. The previous silk material was mainly developed by Pierce You. For the next research work on space elevator materials, Pierce, you can also provide very good information. Important help.”

Pierce was also very excited when he learned that he had the opportunity to join this research project, because before this, Pierce had not often participated in research projects of this level.

After all, Pierce does not have as high a status as Ning Chen or Xu Zhou in the materials science laboratory of Shengzhou University, and because of Pierce's special status, it is not easy to participate in major research projects.

But this time, Ning Chen was able to take the initiative to let Pierce join the project, and Pierce no longer needed to worry about other issues.

After Ning Chen explained some precautions for this branch of research project, everyone quickly started preparations for the project.

In fact, Ning Chen has always attached great importance to this kind of nano-wire material. Ning Chen also feels that the application space of this very special material is not just as simple as carrying out some offensive actions, but it is likely to be used in more field, playing its unique role.

Of course, this does not mean that Ning Chen thinks that this kind of nanofilament material can be directly used in space elevators, because this material still has many limitations of its own. Once the volume of the material is adjusted, some of the previous problems will appear. There are no apparent flaws.

However, in order to better see the defects of this silk material and to better modify the structure of the material, Ning Chen decided to conduct experiments according to the original structure of the nanowire material.

After the experiment was carried out for a period of time, the thing that worried Ning Chen really emerged.

As the structure of this nanofilament material continues to accumulate, although the lightness of the nanofilament material has been retained, the high-strength performance has changed dramatically.

What is different from the previous ultra-high strength is that after the nanowire material becomes thicker, the strength per unit area drops sharply, which makes the members of the experimental team feel very disappointed.

"It seems that this kind of nanowire material does have many limitations. It is definitely unrealistic to directly apply it to a space elevator."

Compared with the somewhat disappointed mood of others, Ning Chen still seems very optimistic. At least for now, Ning Chen has very accurate predictions for all situations.

"This is actually nothing surprising. This is the difference in material properties between the microscopic results and the macroscopic structure of the material. The reason why this nanowire material can have such high strength under relatively microscopic conditions is that Because of the mechanical effect caused by its own nanostructure, this effect cannot be directly converted into high strength at the macro scale. Instead, it will cause a sharp drop in strength due to defects in its internal structure..."

Listening to Ning Chen's explanation, everyone gradually realized the problem.

However, finding the problem does not mean that such a problem can be solved smoothly. This difficult matter made the members in the laboratory become silent. Because according to the current situation, it is not possible to simply make some adjustments to the nanowire material and quickly apply it to the space elevator. This contradiction between the microscopic properties and the macroscopic properties is a problem that cannot be reconciled in theory. The problem.

This is like some small creatures on the Blue Star. They show some very powerful properties on the scale of their own size, but these properties will decline rapidly on a larger scale. The reason for this All can be easily explained through mathematics and physics knowledge.

In desperation, Xu Zhou looked at Ning Chen and asked tentatively:
"Teacher Ning, do you have any good way to deal with this problem?"

After hearing Xu Zhou's words, Ning Chen was silent for a few seconds and then gave his own answer:

"Although this problem seems very difficult, it is not completely unsolvable. The strength of our nanowire materials is much higher than the material strength requirements for space elevators. Therefore, even if we use some methods to make Its unit strength has dropped a bit, which is not a completely unacceptable result..."

Under Ning Chen's explanation, others gradually began to understand Ning Chen's thinking.

"Teacher Ning, you mean that we can balance the difference in strength properties between the microscopic and macroscopic aspects of nanowire materials in some way? This method is indeed feasible to a certain extent, but what exactly do we do? How to do it?”

Naturally, Ning Chen not only thought of the general direction of this idea, but in fact, Ning Chen also had some ideas of his own regarding the specific operation methods.

"One idea I can think of now is to convert the nanowire material into a new type of nanocarbon fiber composite material by adding additional carbon fibers to the nanowire material. In this way, although it may be used in To a certain extent, it affects the microscopic strength and lightweight properties of nanowire materials, but the extent of these effects is still completely within our acceptable range..."

After a pause, Ning Chen continued:

"The most important thing is that this method can balance the strength properties of the material at the microscopic level and the macroscopic level, and no longer have the situation where the material properties are very different between the microscopic and macroscopic levels. Even at the microscopic level, Even under macroscopic conditions, the properties of the materials will be basically the same.”

After hearing Ning Chen's specific idea, everyone gave a positive attitude after thinking about it.

"Yes, Teacher Ning, I also think that this idea does have a lot of room for experimentation. If there are no other problems, let's transform the nanowire material in this way."

…………

In the following time, the project team followed Ning Chen's idea and restarted the research on nanowire materials.

As the experiment gradually progressed, everyone quickly harvested the ideal experimental results. This new material with a carbon fiber structure does have excellent macroscopic strength properties.

This experimental phenomenon inspired the members of the project team and realized that it was very possible to achieve their ultimate goal.

Of course, this does not mean that this direction has been completely declared successful. In fact, Ning Chen has gradually realized through these experimental phenomena that they cannot completely achieve their goals by simply adding carbon fiber to the nanowire material. .

However, this result was completely within Ning Chen's expectation. From the very beginning, Ning Chen did not expect to solve all the problems just by relying on such a method.

Only by providing Ning Chen with enough experimental data can Ning Chen better construct and analyze subsequent experimental ideas.

After returning to his room at night, Ning Chen allowed himself to enter a state of concentration and began to analyze and summarize the existing experimental data, and from this he thought about other feasible experimental directions.

When this kind of analysis and summary was carried out to a certain extent, some brand-new ideas gradually emerged in Ning Chen's brain.

"According to this experimental phenomenon...if we can add nanocrystal technology to it, maybe we can produce materials that fully meet our requirements."

The so-called nanocrystalline material, simply put, is a material with nanoscale grain size. A significant advantage of this material is that the grain size under its microstructure is much smaller than that of various Traditional materials.

This allows nanocrystalline materials to not only have very high strength, but also have very good toughness and plasticity, and these properties are very needed properties for the materials that make up the space elevator.

At the macro scale, nanocrystalline materials can still inherit these properties very well, which makes Ning Chen full of interest in exploring this direction.

However, this does not mean that research in this direction will definitely solve all problems, because the space elevator has very comprehensive requirements for the properties of its constituent materials. Ning Chen must comprehensively consider all changes in properties before he can Able to find the most satisfactory answer in the end.

In the following time, Ning Chen repeatedly simulated hundreds of different material design plans in his mind, and finally gradually obtained his ideal plan.

"If we design the material according to this plan, the material produced in the end is fully expected to be used as a material for space elevators. What we need to do after that is to successfully prepare this material and then verify its practicality. The nature of it." Ning Chen thought to himself.

Based on Ning Chen's previous successful experience, the success rate of this experiment can be at least 80%. Of course, it is still unclear what other problems they will encounter in the future.

The next day, when he came to the laboratory, Ning Chen told others about his latest ideas last night.

(End of this chapter)