KarMann wrote:And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think melted silica would display the stress birefringence, would it?
Very good question, and I only thought of it to the extent of the following:icebike wrote:Is areogel resiliant enough to bounce back from an impact and erease all stress stored in its structure?
Now, what your question reminds me of is the fact that most silicates need some annealing period, a period of slow cooling, depending on factors like the glass's CTE, coefficient of thermal expansion, it can be a shorter or longer period, with a differing rate of drop in temperature as well, depending on melt temp down to ambient environment. If the common glass is not allowed to anneal according to its needs, it will have internal stresses at the ambient temperature. And yes, I did see the graphic you describe, Karl, I'll have to read the surround lit' now, thanks.Leggat wrote:These stresses may relax, bonds may break and reform, essentially allowing the body of the material to heal,
So, if the aerogel is rendered molten at impact, and is in what is generally considered a rather chilly environment (umm, outer space), the molten glass may be rather rapidly quenched. But, again, [caveat]This may all not matter in an aerogel[/caveat], partly from my quote above, and partly from the fact that silica aerogels, while glassy no doubt, being nano materials have almost none of their properties in common with their bulk, (regular variety) counterparts of identical composition. Properties may parallel, but the numbers will be drastically different.
The Russians? Wasn't that mentioned in the tutorial?icebike wrote:has anyone flown aerogel as a particle collector in space prior to this? I'm not aware of it if so.