Structural Engineering and Coruscant

Post by **Coyote** » 2004-12-21 01:59pm

This is something I have always wondered about--
In Science Fiction in general, and especially exemplified in Coruscant, we see uber-tall buildings that are like individual cities on each block.

Metropolis, Judge Dredd, Coruscant, 5th Element-- all follow one formula: the city builds higher and higher, while the lower levels are nasty, corroding, crime and mutant havens.

So even if these societies are using some sort of uber-material to build their buildings, the weight of continued upward expansion-- and the surety that more demands will be placed on the building frame and power grids-- will put an immense stress on the foundations and first floors of the buildings.

Since it is unlikely that work crews can go down there as needed to reinforce the structures (given that it is unsafe/toxic/whatever) what is the most likely means of keeping these building from succumbing to a "Venice-effect" and sinking into the scum?

I could asume construction droids, or perhaops just dumping garbage and random bits of rebar down there to shore up the outward bowing of the frames, but would there be any other means to keep the structures stable-- anything that anyone else has heard as a theory or contemplated on their own?

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-12-21 04:05pm

SW technology has been on a developmental plateau for 25,000 years, so many of those frames are just as well built as ones built yesterday.

And Jedi Search clearly showed that whole kilometer-high districts will be demolished and recycled by enormous construction droids.

Gunhead · Post by **Gunhead** » 2004-12-21 04:50pm

Megacity is effectively on a huge block of concrete, bout the size of east coast. They also have some pretty impressive tech themselves.

-Gunhead

Big Phil · Post by **Big Phil** » 2004-12-21 05:06pm

I would think that the cities have been built upwards for so long that the surface level is fairly strong and robust enough to handle the weight of new construction.

Otherwise, you'd have to send construction droids down into the undercity anytime you want to built something on the surface.

Techno_Union · Post by **Techno_Union** » 2004-12-21 05:28pm

I would also like to point out that on Coruscant there is massive industrial sectors underground (SW: IU); so it wouldn't be surprising if the ground was already reinforced even more so than normal.

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2004-12-22 02:20am

I know in some sci-fi books the cities use counter grav to make the building taller. Also there was several studies preformed by nasa about the making of Multi Kilometer tall towers. And we almost have the tech base to build them today but the cost is very high. Building these buildings are almost as hard as building a orbital elevator which NASA has a study done every year and each year the agreement is that it possible to build with today tech but would take decades and cost trillions. However over the last 2 years advances in Nanotechnology has shown that the cost would be even less. So maybe in 50 yearts we will see MKT and orbital towers. But they would be tempting target.

A good site for such tech is
http://www.spaceelevator.com/

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-12-22 02:59am

I'd be more concerned with the crust of the planet subsiding under all the weight, then I would be with Star Wars construction materials being crushed.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-12-22 03:04am

We already know that Star Wars uses ridiculously strong metal from the fact that the Executor doesn't buckle like a cheap tin can under its own acceleration (never mind the Death Star). So it's not much of a stretch to conclude that they can build fairly flimsy-looking relatively lightweight structures that can still take the stress.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-12-22 03:07pm

Dr. Saxton seems to be taken-in by the idea that its not just materials science - there are tensorial integrity fields in AOTC ICS.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2004-12-23 01:28am

Illuminatus Primus wrote:Dr. Saxton seems to be taken-in by the idea that its not just materials science - there are tensorial integrity fields in AOTC ICS.

Why not? There must be a limit to how strong materials can be passively.

Dark Primus · Post by **Dark Primus** » 2004-12-23 07:17am

And in the real world today there are several plans to build skyscrapers, towering more then one kilometer in height.