RibbonEnergy

Energy Stored in the Ribbon

As a material is stretched it stores energy. In the case of the SE this energy can be released quickly when the ribbon is damaged. The question is where does the energy go? Is the CNT thread or even the ribbon vaporized or does the energy go elsewhere?

The worst case scenario is a catastrophic cascade where a single thread is damaged and as it recoils the stored energy is converted into enough heat to vaporize the thread. As the thread vaporizes it continues to recoil and vaporize until there is no thread along the length of the ribbon. In the process the recoiling thread damages neighboring threads which also vaporize. Bad scenario.

However, some of the energy will be converted to kinetic energy, some into radiative, if the threads are spun CNTs they won't act as a single unit and energy will be transferred and contraction slowed, the interconnects will slow the recoil, the threads will not recoil perfectly axially and fly out of the plane,... but we may still have issues. If so, can the ribbon be designed and run at a lower tension that eliminates the issue or do we redesign the ribbon?

Detailed material’s science and engineering are required to address this issue. A detailed computer model is likely needed as well but initial definitions can be done with little more than "paper and pencil".

The energy in a spring is

E=1/2*k*x^2

The tensile strength we can assume for a CNT thread is 100GPa and the elongation at breakage can be 10% or higher though breakage also occurs in stages where the CNT deforms or necks down releasing some of stress prior to breaking.

The vaporization temperature of CNTs in vacuum is around 6000 C.