Posted on 12/06/2023 8:00:22 PM PST by Jonty30
File this under 'That's not supposed to happen!': Scientists observed a metal healing itself, something never seen before. If this process can be fully understood and controlled, we could be at the start of a whole new era of engineering.
In a study published in July, a team from Sandia National Laboratories and Texas A&M University was testing the resilience of the metal, using a specialized transmission electron microscope technique to pull the ends of the metal 200 times every second.
They then observed the self-healing at ultra-small scales in a 40-nanometer-thick piece of platinum suspended in a vacuum.
Cracks caused by the kind of strain described above are known as fatigue damage: repeated stress and motion that causes microscopic breaks, eventually causing machines or structures to break.
Amazingly, after about 40 minutes of observation, the crack in the platinum started to fuse back together and mend itself before starting again in a different direction.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
So what’s “cold welding?”
When you place two metals together in the vaccuum of space, they just join together. It’s almost like they pass between each other’s atoms.
I think I saw this in an Arnie movie, I can’t remember which one, but I think it had AI too
With affirmative action and multicultural engineers being hired and other grads with very little knowledge, but great self esteem, poorly designed disasters will be waiting to happen.
But if the metal can heal itself, perhaps the destruction poor number crunching and stupid designs cause can be avoided.
Cracks in the brain
Would be better
One in the Terminator series. First thing I thought of too.
This a pretty good explanation of cold welding in a vaccuum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2nQ8isf55s
Shezam...just slide the panels together, put the jet fighter in a vacuum, add the juice, and weld the whole thing together,using ultra thin alloys of titanium.....
We get to have our own UFOs!
You don’t want to use it on just any crack.
Something like that could destroy Uranus.
From 2018:
https://www.machinedesign.com/materials/article/21836625/selfhealing-metals-help-fight-corrosion
They're likely working on the infomercial already, where for just three easy payments of $19.99 you can get a frying pan - BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! If you order now you can get a set of knives that will never dull even if you saw a parking meter off a metal post with it.
Anytime you work metal you’re creating friction and friction causes heat. I imagine stretching a thin piece of metal 200 times a second would create plenty of heat at the nano level. So, friction could cause enough heat to re-weld ( “cold weld”) metal if the metal has tiny ‘healable’ cracks perhaps? Just a guess from a lifetime metal worker.
Interesting.
>rimshot!<
You’re here all week?
According to the video I posted, the thin layer of oxide is what keeps metals from welding together on their own. In space, without the oxide, the metals will weld together on their own.
I like the suggested solution you pose.
I was going to remark that platinum is kind of a non-ideal material for most use cases.
Now mercury is another metal that behaves oddly (for a metal) and is a bit toxic as well.
This has been well known since the first satellites were orbited. Engineers have been having to design around it ever since.
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