StuffOnline (MDS)

Material Design Sequence

Introduction

This is an optional expansion for "Fire Fusion and Steal" (TNE rules).

Rules

First choose a basic material:

Basic Materials
TL	Description	Type	Toughness	Mass	Cost
6	Steel	Metallic	2.00	7.8	0.0022
6	Aluminium Alloy	Metallic	1.00	2.7	0.0037
6	Titanium Alloy	Metallic	2.50	4.9	0.0102
7	Glass Composite (fiberglass)	Ceramic	0.75	1.9	0.0099
8	Graphite Composite	Ceramic	5.00	2.1	0.0595
9	Boron Composite	Ceramic	7.00	2.0	0.0875
9	Early Synthetics	Polymer	0.67	1.3	0.0715
10	Synthetics	Polymer	3.75	1.4	0.0804
11	Improved Synthetics	Polymer	5.63	1.5	0.1125

Optionally modify the basic material with one or more of the following treatments:

Material Treatment
TL	Description	For Type	Toughness	Mass	Cost
7	Improved Alloy	Metallic	x1.13	x0.97	x1.40
8	Amorphous Alloy	Metallic	x3.00	x0.90	x4.00
10	Crystallizing	Metallic	x4.00	x1.00	x5.00
10	Metal Foaming	Metallic	x1.00	x0.80	x1.06
11	Calcium-Carbide Fiber Reinforcement	Metallic or Ceramic	x2.00	x1.00	x3.00
11	Boron-Carbide Fiber Reinforcement	Metallic or Ceramic	x2.84	x1.00	x4.38
11	Silicon-Carbide Fiber Reinforcement	Metallic or Ceramic	?	?	?
11	Sapphicon Fiber Reinforcement	Metallic or Ceramic	?	?	?
11	Diamond Fiber Reinforcement	Metallic or Ceramic	?	?	?
12	Superdensing	Metallic	x7.00	x2.00	x7.00

Amorphous, Crystal, and Metal Foam are mutually exclusive.
Superdense and Metal Foam are mutually exclusive.
The different fiber reinforcements are mutually exclusive.

Alternatively a basic material can be used to make one of the following matrix composites:

Metal/Ceramic/Polymer Matrix Composite
TL	Description	Toughness	Mass	Cost
9	2D Graphite fiber sheets	x1.60	x0.96	x4.16
9	2D Boron fiber sheets	x2.27	x0.93	x6.07
9	Silicon-Carbide fibers	?	?	?
10	Sapphicon fibers	?	?	?
10	Diamond fibers	?	?	?

Superdense materials can also have Electro-Covalent Bonding units or Coherant Electro-Covalent ("tuneable") Bonding units installed:

Electro-Covalent Bonding units
TL	Toughness	Vol	Mass	Power	Cost
12	x1.00	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.026
13	x1.50	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.038
14	x2.00	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.067
15	x3.50	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.136
16	x3.75	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.154
18	x3.75	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.167
20	x3.75	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.296

Vol = hull material volume multiplier for ECB unit volume
Mass in tonnes, Power in Mw, Cost in MCr ... per cubic meter ECB units
Toughness bonus only applies while power available

Coherant Electro-Covalent Bonding units
TL	Toughness(1)	Toughness(2)	Vol	Mass	Power	Cost
18	x5.36	x3.75	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.209
20	x5.36	x3.75	0.20	1.00	0.005	0.370

vol = hull material volume multiplier for CECB unit volume
Mass in tonnes, Power in Mw, Cost in MCr ... per cubic meter CECB units
Toughness bonus: Toughness(1) bonus only applies while power, computer
and sensors are available. Toughness(2) bonus is used instead if there is
power but no computer and/or sensors (in other words CECB units downgrade to be like ECB units).

Finally, there is a production discount: -10% of cost per TL above base for material and treatments (maximum -30%). This discount is not applied to ECB or CEBC units.

Notes

There are still some outstanding issues:

Some values still missing.
Can Boron-Carbide fibers be used in matrix composite materials?
Are fiber reinforcement treatments too high at TL 11?
The original materials list (by Edward Fok?) had graphite composite and graphite laminated composite (both TL8). What is graphite laminated composite? Are we missing a category?

(Also, remember that TL represents production. Historically, amorphous alloys appeared in labs at TL7 but are not mass produceable until TL8.)