The concept of a Do City is not new; as early as the last century, so architects and science fiction creators had already proposed such an idea.
However, at that ti, influenced by various factors such as the environnt and technology, despite so attempts, the idea ultimately failed to materialize.
In these people’s vision, the Do City should be covered by a large do, isolating adverse weather like rain and snow, while controlling and adjusting factors like sunlight and temperature to construct a perfect living environnt.
Such plans and designs are not scarce, but because it requires massive investnt and strong industrial and technological strength as support, until now, this concept has remained on paper.
Although there are so buildings that can be called dos, none of these et Chen Xin’s requirents.
The most important factor among them, of course, is scale.
The dos humans have constructed today are mostly standalone structures. Even if built large, they are generally on the scale of a stadium, an airport, or a station, which is far from the city-level scale Chen Xin envisions.
However, these do structures have given Chen Xin a lot of references.
In fact, one significant reason restricting the ergence of Do Cities is that technologically, this option doesn’t have much use in normal circumstances.
While a giant do enveloping a city, blocking rain and snow and other disaster weather sounds wonderful, the subsequent other effects must also be comprehensively considered.
Combined with factors such as construction cost, construction difficulty, and the fact that the larger the city, the larger the do required, this seemingly wonderful, futuristic thing becos less practical.
As for another important factor, that is the do itself.
The do used at Chen Xin’s Research Center was originally made of a steel structure and glass curtain walls. Though using new materials, the overall weight is still not lightweight.
Fortunately, the Research Center isn’t too large, so the steel structure and glass curtain walls can support it, along with snow removal asures on the outer walls, there is no risk of being overly heavy and collapsing.
But if the do is to be expanded to cover an entire city, the total weight of the steel structure and glass curtain walls would reach an astonishing level.
Therefore, to actually build the do, careful consideration and design of the do’s materials and structure are required.
A simpler thod would be to lower the height of the do, enlarging its curvature to make it a flat arc like the Research Center’s do, rather than a true hemispherical cover.
This could save materials and lighten the do, making it feasible to support a city-covering do under current conditions.
An arched do can effectively prevent snow accumulation, and with the right snow removal system paired, the do itself need not worry about the possibility of snowfalls and collapses.
But even so, Chen Xin does not plan to continue using glass curtain walls as the outer walls for the do.
The first reason is naturally the weight problem of the glass itself, and to construct a do covering a city would require an astonishing amount of glass, he doubts whether it is possible to gather such a quantity of glass eting construction needs.
Moreover, using a glass do cos with construction difficulty and construction period challenges that need to be seriously addressed.
In comparison, another material undoubtedly appears more suitable.
This material is ETFE film, more formally known as ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolyr film.
As a crystalline polyr, ETFE film has a lting point of 256~280°C. It is self-extinguishing when burning. It possesses high shear chanical strength, and its low-temperature impact resistance is the best among existing fluoroplastics, maintaining high impact strength from room temperature to -80°C, with stable chemical properties, and good electrical insulation and radiation resistance.
It is arguably the ideal material for making dos among all materials available at this stage.
In the 1990s, this material began to be used as a covering or awning material.
One of the main venues of the 2008 Olympics in Fla Country, the Water Cube, also used this material for its outer walls.
If this material is used to make dos, it can achieve the lightest mass while ensuring sufficient strength.
As for insulation and warmth preservation, simply covering the outer layer of the ETFE film with a layer of insulation material can solve this issue.
With such a large do capable of insulation and warmth preservation, people can leave underground shelters and restore life on the surface as it was before the disaster in the areas covered by the do.
After all, it has been two or three years since the disaster struck. Although teorites still fall from the sky, their frequency has significantly decreased, and the surface is no longer as dangerous. The safety of the Do City is adequately ensured.
Moreover, even if impacted, the repair of ETFE film damage is undoubtedly simpler than glass curtain walls, making maintenance and repair more convenient.
After solving the do issue, the remaining problem of city construction itself doesn’t require much concern, as the city builders of Fla Country have ample experience to solve all these issues.
Upon calculating all these, Chen Xin finds the conditions for constructing a Do City are actually t; there is no technical hurdle to overco.
If the do can be constructed, with the do blocking external cold, even without large heating facilities like the Energy Tower, the internal temperature of the do would not be too low.
As long as the internal heat is preserved, the environntal temperature inside the do can be maintained within an acceptable range, allowing people who would otherwise need to hide from the cold in underground shelters to return to surface life.
Not to ntion, just erecting an Energy Tower within the do can make the internal temperature as pleasant as Chen Xin’s Research Center, like spring all year round, even supporting the basic needs for restoring the ecosystem that once existed.
With these thoughts, Chen Xin can’t contain his ideas anymore. He quickly organizes them, planning to report them to the state to promote the construction of the Do City.
However, before reporting, Chen Xin feels he should first co up with a complete set of design plans, rather than submitting just a rough plan.
Although the construction of the Do City is theoretically feasible, such a large do will have significant impacts, the construction difficulty will be very high, whether it can be successfully completed in the current environnt, where to build it if it is to be built, and how to complete the construction are all matters to consider.
Thus, after so hesitation, Chen Xin decides to first perfect the entire plan, at least complete the feasibility study before reporting.
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