Memory Materials

[msquared48]

If you can make a "Memory Foam" material, why not a memory metal - one that would return to it's original shape after a collision?

Seems like it should be dooable. What would be the problems to be overcome?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
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[IRstuff]

They tried that on the Fiero already, didn't they?

The biggest difference is the level of forces involved. Memory foams rarely exceed maybe 3 g's of acceleration. A high-speed car crash pushes upwards of 50 g's.

That dumb show on Discovery Channel (Smash Lab)attempted to do something like that for crash barriers and something else. My recollection is that they failed miserably, but they weren't exactly the best and the brightest.


TTFN

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[patprimmer]

I thought memory metal was called spring steel.

Regards
Pat
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[jheidt2543]

I thought this was going to be about finding my car keys!

 

[ivymike]

there are memory alloys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_memory_alloy

 

[VEBill]

If such technologies were actually cost-effective for a given driver, then perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to drive.

 

[KENAT]

Aren't memory metals already used in some glasses frames?

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[btrueblood]

Yes, my son wears them. Neat stuff.

 

[Qshake]

At one time there was some memory alloy work going on in the CE department at GaTech.

One of the applications is for earthquake resistance. Since it's important that if you allow a structure to displace to dissapate energy it needs to comeback to the same location, hence the use of memory alloys.

If you're interested you can probably find some interesting work on their website or similar research work.

Regards,
Qshake

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[unclesyd]

The main memory metal is Nitinol.

http://www.nitinol.com/