Doomsday Bunker Upgrade

The idea of ​​a dome city is not new. As early as the last century, some architects and science fiction creators had proposed such a concept.

It's just that it was limited by various factors such as the environment and technology at that time. Although some people tried, they ended up without a problem.

In the vision of these people, the dome city should be covered by a huge dome to isolate the influence of adverse weather such as rain and snow from the outside world. At the same time, factors such as light and temperature can be controlled and adjusted to create a perfect living environment.

There are not many such plans and designs, but because of the huge investment required, as well as the need for strong industrial and technical support, so far, this idea has always remained on paper.

Although there were also some buildings that could be called domes, but these did not meet Chen Xin's requirements.

The most important point, of course, is that the scale is not large enough.

Most of the domes built by human beings are just separate buildings. No matter how big they are, they are almost the size of a stadium, an airport, a station, etc. Compared with the scale of a city that Chen Xin envisioned, there is naturally a gap far.

However, these dome buildings still gave Chen Xin a lot of reference.

In fact, one of the important reasons restricting the emergence of dome cities is that this technology is not very useful under normal circumstances.

Although it sounds like a great thing to say that a huge dome covers the city and isolates it from the intrusion of rain, snow and other disaster weather, but the other impacts that come with it also need to be considered comprehensively.

Coupled with the constraints of various factors such as construction cost, construction difficulty itself, and the larger the city needs, the larger the dome and other factors, this seemingly beautiful and futuristic thing becomes unrealistic.

As for another important factor, that is the dome itself.

The dome originally used by Chen Xin's scientific research center here is a steel structure and glass exterior walls. Although all new materials are used, the overall weight is still not light.

Fortunately, the scientific research center is not too big, and it can be supported by the steel structure and glass exterior wall. In addition, there are snow removal measures on the exterior wall, so there is no risk of excessive load-bearing and overall collapse.

But to expand the dome so that it can envelop an entire city, the combined weight of the steel structure and glass facade would reach a staggering level.

So if you want to really build the dome, the material and structure of the dome itself need to be carefully considered and designed.

The simpler method is naturally to reduce the height of the dome and widen its arc to make it a flat arc similar to the dome of the scientific research center, instead of really making a hemispherical cover.

This saves material and reduces the weight of the dome, which in the current situation can support a dome that envelops a city.

The curved dome itself can effectively prevent the accumulation of snow. As long as it is equipped with a suitable snow removal system, the dome itself does not worry about the possibility of falling snow and collapse.

But even so, Chen Xin did not intend to continue to use the glass curtain wall as the outer wall of the dome.

The first is naturally the weight of the glass itself. In addition, the dome that will be built to cover a city is undoubtedly an astonishing amount of glass. He doubts whether it is possible to make up so much glass to meet the needs of construction.

Moreover, when using a glass dome, the difficulty of construction and the construction period are issues that need to be seriously faced.

In contrast, another material undoubtedly appears to be much more suitable.

This material is ETFE membrane, more formally known as ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer membrane.

Ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer film is a crystalline high polymer with a melting point of 256~280°C. It is self-extinguishing when burned. It has high shear mechanical strength, low temperature impact resistance is the best among existing fluoroplastics, can have high impact strength from room temperature to -80°C, stable chemical properties, good electrical insulation and radiation resistance .

It can be said that it is the most ideal material for making domes among all materials at this stage.

This material has been applied in the 1990s as a covering or shed film material.

The Water Cube, one of the main venues of the Yanguo 2008 Olympic Games, also has an exterior wall made of this material.

If this material is used to make the dome, it is absolutely possible to achieve the lightest quality while ensuring sufficient strength.

As for the problem of cold protection and heat preservation, this problem can be solved by covering the outer layer of the ETFE film with a layer of heat preservation material.

And with such a large dome that can keep warm and cold, the area covered by the dome can leave the deep underground refuge and resume the life on the ground before the disaster.

After all, it has been two or three years since the disaster struck. Although there will still be meteorites falling from the sky, but now the number has been greatly reduced, and the surface is no longer so dangerous. The safety of the dome city is still sufficient.

And even if it is hit, the damage repair of ETFE film is undoubtedly simpler than that of glass curtain wall, and it is also easier to maintain and repair.

After solving the problem of the dome, there is no need to worry about the remaining city construction itself. The city builders of Yan Kingdom have enough experience in this area to solve all these problems.

After such calculations, Chen Xin found that the conditions for building a dome city were already in place, and there was no technical hurdle to pass.

If a dome can be built to block the cold outside, even without a large heating facility like an energy tower, the temperature inside the dome will not be too low.

As long as the internal heat is not lost, the ambient temperature in the dome can be maintained in an acceptable range, allowing people who originally needed to escape the cold in the underground shelter to return to the surface life.

Not to mention that as long as an energy tower is erected in the dome, the temperature in the dome can be completely the same as that of the scientific research center, so that the four seasons are like spring, and even support a basic need to restore the previous ecological environment.

Thinking of this, Chen Xin couldn't hold back the thoughts in his heart, and quickly sorted it out, planning to report it to the country and promote the construction of the dome city.

However, before submitting the report, Chen Xin felt that he should come up with a whole set of design proposals instead of submitting such a rough plan.

Although the construction of a dome city is theoretically feasible, how much impact will such a huge dome have, how difficult is the construction, whether it can be successfully built in today's environment, and if it is to be built, where should it be built? How to complete the construction is something that needs to be considered.

So after Chen Xin hesitated for a while, he decided to improve the whole plan first, at least after completing the feasibility demonstration, and then report it.