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Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

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Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#21

Post by martyvis »

dsign wrote: post #19

IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of: a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene. This particular fiber seems to have 2…

Maybe we can progress from tensegrity coffee tables to tensegrity skyscrapers.

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#22

Post by geysersam »

dsign wrote: post #19

IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of: a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene. This particular fiber seems to have 2…

Why not things like:

* Buildings

* Bridges

* High voltage wires with very few supports

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#23

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

dsign wrote: post #19

IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of: a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene. This particular fiber seems to have 2…

Save others the burden of a couple of clicks / taps.

An O'Neill cylinder would consist of two counter-rotating cylinders. The cylinders would rotate in opposite directions to cancel any gyroscopic effects that would otherwise make it difficult to keep them aimed toward the Sun. Each would be 5 miles (8.0 km) in diameter and 20 miles (32 km) long, connected at each end by a rod via a bearing system. Their rotation would provide artificial gravity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#24

Post by staticassertion »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #12

Say this could be mass produced. What are the beachhead markets? What are the moneymakers?

If transporting steel wiring is a major cost for you you could reduce that cost significantly by transporting far lighter, thinner strands of these fibers. That would have to assume that you can make up any increased costs of using the silk, of course.

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#25

Post by injidup »

dsign wrote: post #19

IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of: a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene. This particular fiber seems to have 2…

Super lightweight wings for my hydrofoil!

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#26

Post by beefield »

thorncorona wrote: post #20
dsign wrote: post #19

IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of: a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene. This particular fiber seems to have 2…

I can think of a couple: - Durable stringy clothing items - Thinner ropes? Particularly relevant is for safety applications. - Fiber ropes are particularly advantageous when compared to steel ropes in applications that require repeated bending.

Regarding ropes, for most practical applications I can think fro the top of my head, tensile strength is not actually that much of a limiting factor (especially with dyneema), but more the abrasion resistance and how easy it is to handle a rope.

I mean, you could in theory rappel from something like 2mm dyneema line with very comfortable safety margin on tensile strength alone, but 1. keeping a say 60m long 2mm line untangled is a serious headache, and I would not be comfortable holding my weight on the 2mm rope while letting it scratch against a rock wall .

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#27

Post by jcims »

hanniabu wrote: post #16
14 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine you could use ultra thin rope for heavy loads. I worked at a bungy jump place once and we had members of the Canadian military come to our bridge to test some very thin paracord. The rope they used did not look like it would be able to hold them but it did. But this silk is obviously way stronger then what they had I could only imagine how thin it would be and have the same strength

Probably something like dyneema

Dyneema fishing line is kind of frightening to handle IMHO. It feels like it's just waiting to sink into your skin.

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#28

Post by adrian_b »

nico wrote: post #10
anu7df wrote: post #4

Tensile strength of 2 GPa for this silk compared to 0.4 to 0.8 GPa for steel. Really cool.. This is without including the strength to weight aspect!

Could reinforced concrete be made with silk instead of steel?

The problem for such an application is not the strength, but the chemical stability in time.

For it to be competitive, it would be necessary for the rate of hydrolysis of the protein fibers (which breaks the fibers) in an alkaline environment to be less than the rate at which rusting diminishes the strength of steel bars.

This is very unlikely. At most there might be a chance for such fibers to be used for reinforcing some other kind of cement, less alkaline than the common cements.

Also, for reinforcement applications, good adhesion between the reinforcing material and the reinforced material is necessary, which for silk vs. a mineral cement would need some kind of extra adhesive coating of the fibers, with adequate properties, which might be hard to discover.

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#29

Post by shellfishgene »

dsign wrote: post #19

IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of: a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene. This particular fiber seems to have 2…

Kevlar has a higher tensile strength than this silk, and there seem to be quite a few uses worth speaking of, apart from science fiction space technology...

Re: Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks

#30

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

dsign wrote: post #19

IMO, fibers with very high tensile strength have only two applications worth speaking of: a) Space elevators (but the tensile strength required for that is too high and we are still not close enough), and b) Large O'Neill cylinders, in the radius of about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). With regards to tensile strength, these would require something with the strength of graphene. This particular fiber seems to have 2…

I’ve read an article (maybe linked here?), about the reason that building elevators have limits to how many floors they can travel.

It has to do with the weight of the cables.

That article posited that spider silk was a solution, but this may be better.

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