A Building Material 12 Times Stronger Than Steel

nm1m writes: "For the last few months I have been following with some interest a few stories (story link may not work) in the school newspaper about a new structural technology being developed at BYU. It is called PYRAmatrix, and is 12 times stronger than steel, yet less than 10 percent the weight of steel. A 47 foot cylinder of this stuff, 16 inches in diameter and weighing just 47 pounds, can support almost 4 tons. It seems to have obvious applications in aerospace, electricity utility poles, radar and communication towers, and just about any structure that needs exceptional strength. An interesting press release with facts and figures can be found here. Photos can be found here." The link worked for me -- and reminded me of the plastic-walking scene in Sabrina .

Comments

press release?

[b_pretender]

The linked story seems more like a press release rather than a study of the material.

It leaves out important facts, such as...
...strength is not the only important material property. The images only show this strength in compression.

Is this material resiliant? Strong in tension or compression? Does it shear easily?

ALL of these properties matter if you are going to use it. Usually, the Aeromet steels, super carbon composites and other superstrong materials suffer from poor non-strength properties, rendering them useless in most situations.

Imagine your super material 2 lb bike frame that chips away because it is so brittle that rocks chip off peices, or is too rigid because the material has no elastic modulos.

Sweet.

[TweeKinDaBahx]

Now we can build 10,000 unit subdivisions in the desert at half the cost! Won't it be grand when we're all out of water?! I CAN'T WAIT!

(Yeah, this is a bit paranoid BTW, but I live in new mexico so give me a break. EL VADO LAKE is a mud hole and I didn't catch any fish this weekend so I'm bitter.)