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Ali Pourahmad's Inventions | Category: New inventions in the world | Related: Scientific discoveries and technological inventions
Suspended and floating buildings using superconductors and magnets!
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
◉ Introduction and objectives:
In this article, we will briefly explain how to build suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets.
Today, in the modern world, there is a special and serious look at aesthetic concepts and visual appeal of products in the form of complex concepts along with the greater use and efficiency of technology. In the past 5 decades, the speed of emergence of new technologies and the process of frequent change and development in them was not as fast as today, but today's man is much more interested in rapid changes, frequent innovations and deep thinking about the achievements achieved because he wants to find out how he can offer more different and innovative creativity every day. For example, in the past several decades, one of the main reasons for the fundamental changes in the internal and external structure of industries related to construction has been this strong tendency of modern man to make fundamental changes in the structure while keeping the visual beauty of its products.
We have always seen buildings under the strong influence of the dominant force of gravity. The combination of design and engineering of the interior and exterior structure and even the molecular composition of the building materials have always been affected by this force, as well as other frictional or erosive forces in each area. In other words, we have always seen buildings attached to the ground! But have we ever seen a building suspended in the sky? Surely many people have seen such buildings in science fiction movies. But is it possible in reality to build building structures floating in the air? In this article, I will explain that such an idea is definitely possible, but before that and to better understand this technique, we should briefly explain the basic physical concepts used in this idea and design.
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
Resistance to the passage of electricity is one of the characteristics of a material's conductivity or insulation. For example, a metal conducts electricity well because the free electrons in the metal pass through the material easily without any resistance so, the metal has the property of conductivity. However, if the same electricity enters a plastic material, the electrons encounter high resistance and the electricity cannot pass due to the structure of the gases used in the plastic texture, because plastic has insulating properties. Of course, the insulating or conductive nature of materials is a relative property, not an absolute one because all materials have a small amount of conductive or insulating properties within their atoms.
Some materials found in nature are called superconductors because of their superpowerful and extremely high ability to conduct electricity. All superconductors are made up of materials that are electrically neutral because their atoms consist of negatively charged electrons that surround the nucleus of the atom with an equal number of positively charged protons.
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
Therefore, in a superconducting material, electrons move from atom to atom in a regular movement without any collisions, instead of moving randomly and for this reason, no resistance or heat is generated. The movement of electrons and nuclei becomes more regular and superconductivity increases if a superconducting material is cooled.
In addition to materials found in nature, superconductivity can be created by combining several materials. Of course, this combination does not include all materials because the ability of a material to become a superconductor is only in the category of metals and metalloids, which are able to exhibit superconductivity when they reach a critical temperature. For example, mercury becomes a superconductor at a temperature of minus 269 degrees Celsius, but there are other compounds that achieve superconductivity at higher temperatures. For example, the combination of mercury, thallium, barium, calcium, copper, oxide (Hg12Tl3Ba30Ca30Cu45O125) achieves superconductivity at a temperature of minus 135 degrees Celsius (minus 211 degrees Fahrenheit or 138 Kelvin).
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
In addition to the ability of superconductors to conduct electricity without any resistance, these materials can trap electricity near their surface and neutralize their internal fields at a critical temperature (TC) using the Meissner effect. This causes the magnetic flux to be pushed out when a superconductor is cooled to a critical temperature and in such conditions a material that has magnetic properties becomes suspended and floats above the superconductor. This is the same property that allows a superconductor to reach a temperature of minus 268 degrees Celsius to keep 33 to 640 ton maglev trains suspended at a distance of 10 centimeters without any contact on the rails (ground coils).
Such an amazing property led me to the idea of using a material with a very large mass and high superconductivity to keep a building structure suspended (symbolically) many years ago, which I used in 2018 to create amazing suspended buildings in the science fiction film "Solar Year 2400". Perhaps at that time the scenes of suspended buildings in this film were considered just a fictional idea, but in fact the idea of this film was never fictional, and behind the design of the scenes of this film, I had a detailed and complete data on how to build those floating structures in the real world, which I will explain in detail below.
◉ Technical description of the invention:
To make a building float, as seen in the video at the end of this article, I used two techniques. The first technique was to use a pressurized helium storage chamber as the internal structure and cover this balloon chamber with the actual facade of a building. The second technique was to use a large, powerful superconductor with special cooling equipment to suspend a large magnetic magnet attached to a lightweight structure as a symbolic building, that here I will describe the second, more expensive and complex technique, which is to use a huge superconductor. It should be noted that due to the control of the weight and balance of the structure in both techniques, suspended buildings are uninhabitable and the only justification for investing in their construction is to create a unique and beautiful symbol of a building floating in the sky of modern cities.
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
In order for the building of this project to remain suspended in the air by superconductors, it is first necessary to reduce the excess weight of the building as much as possible. For this purpose, I used a structure made of compact and fireproof polycarbonate called G2 with a steel paint coating. The weight of the G2 beams is about 20 kg with a width of 40 cm and a length of 6 meters, and the weight of the G2 plates is about 5 kg with a width of 2 meters and a length of 6 meters. This low weight, along with the high hardness and strength of polycarbonate in the face of gravity pressure and environmental factors, allows us to create the structure and facade of the suspended building in the desired dimensions. In fact, to reduce weight, the interior of the suspended building is completely empty and its exterior consists of the structure (polycarbonate beams) and the facade (polycarbonate shaped panels).
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
The next step is to add an "electric generator" to "generate a magnetic field" to the bottom of the suspended structure. To produce a very strong magnetic field, we need a strong "electric generator" (Magnet Coil) to convert the electrical conductive coil into a magnetic field. Since all the electrons move in the same direction through the wire, a controlled and strong magnetic field is created around the magnet coil that its strength is proportional to the amount of electricity passing through the coil. This means that as the electric current increases, the strength of the magnetic field also increases. This is important because, when placing the magnetic field generator on top of the superconductor, if the magnetic field created is stronger and the temperature of the superconducting material is lower, then the repulsion and neutralization of the magnetic field created will be better. This is due to the Meissner reaction effect, and with this trick, it will be possible to suspend and anti-gravity large structures.
Because the "electric generator" of the magnetic field is connected to the suspended structure, it can obtain its required electricity in two ways. The first plan is to use solar panels connected to the suspended structure, which, in addition to playing an alternative role as the building's glass windows, have the ability to generate the electricity required by the "electric generator" (Magnet Coil). Of course, in this plan, attention should be paid to the maximum weight of the stability and control of the floating building. The second and more expensive plan is wireless power transmission (WPT) with microwave transmission (MPT) from the twin part of the building on the ground so, this idea will be more efficient due to the very short distance between the two separate parts of the building (the part attached to the ground and the part suspended in the air).
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
At the bottom and top of each transverse side of the suspended structure, a total of 16 suction and pressure fans (4 fans on each side) are mounted to control and prevent the movement of the structure due to natural factors. This deflection correction system is activated when it receives a warning from smart sensors about slight deviations of the suspended structure from the parallel position (relative to the structure attached to the ground) so, in proportion to the deviation, the air pressure on the structure is forced to return the suspended structure to the specified location. Of course, the magnetic field adhesion (created between the electromagnet and the superconductor) prevents the deviation but the pressure and suction fans can prevent any unwanted deviations on the structure, especially in certain atmospheric conditions.
◉ Click on any of the gallery images below to enlarge:
To complete the system designed to keep the suspended structure floating above the base structure (building attached to the ground), we must use a large conductive mass with a combination of materials (LTS) that reach the TC point (critical temperature for the formation of superconductivity in materials) at the highest temperature. The combination of mercury, thallium, barium, calcium, copper, oxide (Hg12Tl3Ba30Ca30Cu45O125) is a suitable structure for the superconductor used in this project, which was patented by Korean scientists and reaches superconductivity at a temperature of minus 135 degrees Celsius.
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
The reason for choosing this combination is the possibility of using liquid nitrogen to keep these composite materials cold instead of using liquid helium because the production of liquid nitrogen is much less expensive than liquid helium gas. However, the choice of freezing source is subject to review and change depending on the alloy structure of the superconductor material. It should be noted that freezing superconducting materials using electric cooling devices will be very expensive and require high power consumption so, the best solution for freezing superconducting materials is to use liquid nitrogen at high temperatures TC and liquid helium at low temperatures TC.
So far, the system for keeping the structure suspended has been completed, but a point that should be given special attention is the proportion of dimensions and the difference in weight of the "electric magnet generator" of the suspended structure with the superconductor connected to the fixed structure and attached to the ground. In other words, the possibility of imbalance in the correct functioning of the superconductor increases if the suspended structure is overweight, the magnetic field is weak, or the temperature drops in the superconductor because the magnetic flux applied to the superconductor is not completely expelled due to the imbalance of field pressure and temperature, it will not be possible for the structure connected to the electromagnet to be suspended.
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
As can be seen in the video at the end of the article, to overcome this challenge I designed an auxiliary solution using hydraulic jacks to support the suspended structure. In addition to holding the suspended structure in emergency situations or during maintenance periods, these jacks can also act as a power saving system for the suspended structure. In this way, in the late hours of the night, when the importance of the building's floating visibility decreases, the supporting jacks are connected to the suspended structure and continue to hold the structure above the base building without the need for an electric magnetic field and then, when daylight comes and the building becomes visible, the supporting jacks are separated from the suspended structure again.
◉ Invention: Suspended and floating buildings in the air using superconductors and magnets
◉ Inventor and Patent Owner: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Category: New inventions by inventors in the world
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the necessity of implementing such a complex, advanced and expensive project requires economic justification. However, building a few of them in some modern cities can add to the beauty of these cities with a combination of science fiction and modern symbols to attract more tourists and related investments.
Like other inventions, this invention also has the potential for further development and optimization, and its commercialization makes it possible to fantasize and modernize different urban facades in some regions of the world.
End of article//
◉ Video of Suspended and floating buildings using superconductors and magnets / Category: Inventions by Ali Pourahmad
◉ Animation creator of this video: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Music composer of this video: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Narrator: Ali Pourahmad
◉ Language: English
◉ Subtitles: None
About inventor and author of this article:
◉ Scientific inventions by Ali Pourahmad
◉ Ali Pourahmad's science fiction films
◉ Ali Pourahmad Awards
◉ Paintings by Ali Pourahmad
◉ Ali Pourahmad's Instrumental music
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