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Stronger Than Steel: Synthetic Spider Silk [video]

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Re: Stronger Than Steel: Synthetic Spider Silk [video]

#11

Post by aerophilic »

ianai wrote: post #6

Is this strong enough for a space elevator?

Spider Silk has a tensile strength of 1.3GPa, at a density of 1.3g/cm^3 [0]. This translates to 1300 kg/m3, or a specific strength around 1,000,000.

So short answer is probably “maybe?”, based on the equations here [1], however there are other mitigating considerations, everything from how would you mass produce it, to the fact it can constrict up to 50% when wet. Hopefully those are just engineering problems.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_silk#Density [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

Re: Stronger Than Steel: Synthetic Spider Silk [video]

#13

Post by abakker »

aerophilic wrote: post #11
ianai wrote: post #6

Is this strong enough for a space elevator?

Spider Silk has a tensile strength of 1.3GPa, at a density of 1.3g/cm^3 [0]. This translates to 1300 kg/m3, or a specific strength around 1,000,000. So short answer is probably “maybe?”, based on the equations here [1], however there are other mitigating considerations, everything from how would you mass produce it, to the fact it can constrict up to 50% when wet. Hopefully those are just engineering problems. [0] ht…

All the synthetic silk products I’ve ever seen are very susceptible to UV damage. Modern synthetic winch lines are synthetic silks, and while they are very strong, they need to be kept covered to ensure UV stability.

Re: Stronger Than Steel: Synthetic Spider Silk [video]

#16

Post by ggcdn »

There are two main objectives when designing conventional structures: strength and serviceability. We want to make sure structures have sufficient strength under very rare and severe loading to prevent collapse. But we also want to make sure they don't move too much under normal loading. It sounds like using silk would be a challenge to satisfy both objectives in many applications. In order to actually mobilize the tensile strength, it would require huge strains that would be incompatible with conventional materials. Or everything would need to be pretensioned up to some high stress. Likewise, for serviceability it would require either lots of strand under low stress or pretensioned strand.

That's not to say these are insurmountable problems, just something Ive never thought about before.

Re: Stronger Than Steel: Synthetic Spider Silk [video]

#17

Post by ianai »

abakker wrote: post #13
aerophilic wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spider Silk has a tensile strength of 1.3GPa, at a density of 1.3g/cm^3 [0]. This translates to 1300 kg/m3, or a specific strength around 1,000,000. So short answer is probably “maybe?”, based on the equations here [1], however there are other mitigating considerations, everything from how would you mass produce it, to the fact it can constrict up to 50% when wet. Hopefully those are just engineering problems. [0] ht…

All the synthetic silk products I’ve ever seen are very susceptible to UV damage. Modern synthetic winch lines are synthetic silks, and while they are very strong, they need to be kept covered to ensure UV stability.

That’s very informative! What do you figure are potentially new applications for this that aren’t possible without it?

Re: Stronger Than Steel: Synthetic Spider Silk [video]

#20

Post by DoreenMichele »

_f9cu wrote: post #2

Whats the point of using such a good invention for making shoes? What is the right kind of application for using spider silk?

I have no idea what we should make with it, but we currently make clothes out of it:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-other-artifacts/wo...

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