3 ms·
Silicon is not necessarily tough in the sense of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughness -- it really depends. The hard
by bzbarsky 11y ago
Silicon is not necessarily tough in the sense of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughness -- it really depends.
The hard problem in road surfaces is not the sitting outside for 20 years. Glass, even cheap crappy glass, handles this last just fine; see windows in houses. The hard problems are dealing with repeated time-varying mechanical stress and dealing with thermal expansion (windows can play fast and loose with this by leaving expansion space around the glass inside the frame).
- Retric 11y agoCrystal silicon not steel, but it's reasonably close to concrete. And concrete is the high end road surface vs. asphalt. Crystal silicon [.6 - 1.3KIc (MPa · m1/2)] https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/355152/1/Thermomechanical+properties+and+fracture+in+single+crystal+silicon+-+REVIEWED.pdf https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/355152/1/Ther... (Page 12) Concrete [0.2-1.4 KIc (MPa · m1/2)] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracture_toughness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracture_toughness