Advanced Materials
Materials- Building
Many new and exciting materials to make our green, technology-using, innovative school. Possible materials for us to use would be Amorphous metal, Carbon Nano-tubes, Aerogel, and Transparent alumina.
Aerogel is a material that would most definitely fit our school's insulation needs. It's 99.8% empty space, and this is amazing, because most insulation would be a lot thicker in order to work. which makes it look semi-transparent. The military is even considering using it for armor because of its insulation factors. It stops cold from getting in, is thick and durable. It could easily protect you from a flame-thrower, and on top of that, it's a mineral, easy to pack into the walls, and light. You could stay warm on the moon in an aerogel room. It's made by dehydrating alumina, chromia, tin oxide, and carbon. It's a 15-time Guinness Records winner, and can withstand -460°F to 1200°F [1][5].
Carbon Nano-tubes would be a good bonding material for holding a joint in the building together. The sp2 bond is what holds together these carbon chains, while the weaker sp3 bond holds together diamond. They can also move energy efficiently through them, so having a savings on some electrical wire is possible by running a line into a block of these. The space elevator will eventually be built out of these. They are 300 times stronger than steel. We may also use it to hold in the blast-proof doors/windows and the underwater window bindings. The perfect tubes are a hexagonal set of carbon molecules, a few of which form the tubes[2][5].
Descriptions
A. A Sample of Aerogel, Nearly Clear, but blue. As you can see, it works well enough as an insulator to protect the flower from the blowtorch. Taken By The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under The Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License. (6)
B. A Model of the molecular structure of a carbon nanotube.It was made by Guillaume Paumier under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License. (7)
C. A spinning animation of a carbon nanotube in motion. It Covers all angles for better viewing. Made by Schwarzm under the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.2. (8)
D. A 3D Model of different types of Carbon Nanotubes. Made by Michael Ströck under the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.2. (9)
Materials- The Dome
Amorphous metals are a strong kind of metal that works like glass. They have a slightly different atomic structure. They can be up to twice as strong as steel. These would be perfect as a part of the underwater area of our school, because we will have a large dome on the underside of the school made of certain amorphous metals with gaps for windows surrounded by carbon-Nanotube bindings. Because of their molecular structure, they can absorb and move energy, and has no weak points. They are made by heating and immediately freezing metal. They would also be highly efficient. Their electric powers can improve the U.S energy grid efficiency by about 40%. They were first created in 1957 by two scientists cooling fast moving objects [3][5].
Transparent alumina is the next material on our list. A kind of durable, transparent metal that is about three times stronger than steel. We think that as part of the maintenance dome would be a perfect place for this material to be used in our school. We think that in order to maximize security, a strong, pressure-resistant window would be a good idea. The windows made out of this would be held in their bindings by carbon-nanotubes to be used in-between the windows and the walls of the dome. Now being planned to be used in skyscrapers, it is a strong and clear material that could be used for future windows. It was first made by super-heating aluminum to 1200 degrees Celsius [4][5].
Descriptions
A. Sample of Metallic glass material, scientifically known as Amorphous metal. Taken in a lab by George Stobbart and posted as public domain. (10)
B. Just a sample of the capabilities of Transparent alumina, a sculpture made completely out of this see-through metal. Taken By Akira ASKR under The Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons licence. (11)
Possible Designs
1- Nurse's office. Linked directly to hospital emergency room.
2- School office. Land of the Administrative staff.
3- Cafeteria. Linked to off-campus farming/filtering station in Idaho.
4- Submarine Docking Area. Where small/large subs are stored.
5- Power Converting Station. This is where all of our power combines to be used in our school.
6- Hydroelectric power. We harvest our water energy here.
7- Geothermic converting station. Where we get our energy from the ground.
8- Chimney. To vent steam.
9- "Little black box". Power source for each room.
10- Solar Roof. We use the roof as a place to harvest solar energy.
11- Monorail power source. Used to get energy to run the monorail.
12- Monorail. Transport vehicle to school.
13- Monorail power transmitter. Used to move wind energy.
14- Primary Windmills. Used to harvest wind.
15- Main Entrance. Large blast-proof double doors.
16- Mountains. It is in the Appalachian mountains, you know.
17- Main supports. Hold school up.
18- Buckets. Used to collect hot rocks.
19- Maintenance tunnels. For school repairs and lower access.
20- Periscope. For viewing sea life.
21- Support elevator. To give those with access a downwards passage.
22- Private Testing rooms. For sub-ground testing.
23- Main underwater viewing chamber
24- Main Lab. All over the building, labs are against the edge.
25- Large Classroom------+
26- Medium Classroom-----+ Where Learning commences.
27- Small Classroom------+
28- Extra long Classroom-+
29- Dividing wall. To ensure lab safety.
30- Artificial Support Turf. For holding firm supports.