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What is the strongest, toughest material a vehicle can be made out of?
I know carbon fiber is really strong, but it's a little delicate. Aluminum, titanium, carbon steel, maybe even polymers derived from spider webs. What would be the awesomest material?
"Those who dance are often thought mad by those who cannot hear the music."
"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."
This'll inevitably come down to the question "good at what?"
CFRP are really good in tension and cyclic loading, but that is not the only thing that makes a material "strong". There will always be a specific best choice for any given situation, I don't think you'll ever come up with a "supermaterial", even when taking nanotechnology in account.
- Sometimes you want a ductile material that bends and deflects without breaking
- Other times you want a stiff material
- Isotropic or anisotropic behaviour?
- Type of loading (tension, compression, shear, torsion etc)
- Fatigue and cyclic loading considerations
- Thermal conduction or insulation?
- Change of material properties due to temperature, time or loading?
- Manufacturing tolerances
- Electrical properties (inc static, and shielding from interference)
- Durability for relevant exposure conditions
- etc
- etc
Have a look at an F1 car. Yes, the body is made of carbon fibre, but the suspension parts are still made out of metal (covered by CF fairings), the engines are metal, wheels are metal, gears are metal in a CF box, the fuel tank is a flexible plastic bag, wheel tethers are kevlar. All are "strongest" for their job.
UHMWPE is a fantastic material for certain applications. Almost as slippery as PTFE but much better abrasion resistance. Makes a terrific fibre - used for paraglider control lines, lightweight (floating) fishing lines, rock climbing slings and really strong hawsers & ropes.
Dyneema and Spectra are gel spun through a spinneret to form oriented-strand synthetic fibers of UHMWPE, which have yield strengths as high as 2.4 GPa and density as low as 0.97 kg/l (for Dyneema SK75).[4] High-strength steels have comparable yield strengths, and low-carbon steels have yield strengths much lower (around 0.5 GPa). Since steel has a density approximately equal to 7.8 kg/l, this gives strength-to-weight ratios for these materials in a range from 10 to 100 times higher than steel. Strength-to-weight ratios for Dyneema are about 40% higher than for aramid.
I am making a pendulum clock & am going to make a toothed belt using Dynema for the drive weight. Not easy as nothing sticks to it really & you cant fusion join it.
Thanks for the info. What i'm asking about is the strongest material to make the body shell out of. And i'm asking this in want of some theoretical super tensile alloy that might not be developed yet. Please, if anyone has an idea, lemme know. I know for a fact that carbon fiber is not a perfect material. I'm wonder what's better. and I'm not concerned about price, either. Thanks Guys!
"Those who dance are often thought mad by those who cannot hear the music."
"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."
I believe their is carbon alloy witch is stronger than carbon or if your very rich there is something called nano technology that is much much much stronger that carbon allow and even lighter but its supper bucks.
Totally agree, some materials are better suited for certain jobs.
for instance carbon fibre is not just used for its rigid and light weight strength but its also used for making sailed for yachts because their again light strong and hardly stretch. I have also seen bags and wallets etc made from carbon, kevlar, and pentex, again for the same reasons as sails on yachts. horses for courses.
