Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Earth Striker Lurin]

Greetings fellow Earth Strikers:

So here's the deal.  My buddy and I were bored out of our minds, so of course that means it's time to fire up some DF.  After flipping through the wiki we came accross the challenge page. (that's http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/DIY#Minimalist_challenge_build for the uninitiated.)  In the walk through it states That you can build a smelter with 1 ash, which it notes is a "fire safe material".   I thought this was the most absurd thing in this game.  My friend agreed and thought it would make more sense to have to bring a block along.  So while he went AFK, I sat out to research the web.

First I found this:  http://www.flyash.info/2009/054-batmunkh2009.pdf

That is some scientific journal done by someone who was testing the feasibility of using coal ash as a building material in Mongolia.  They even mention the Thermal Conductivity of the ash-concrete they made.  Thermal Conductivity is the quantity of heat that is transmitted through a unit thickness in a direction normal to a surface of unit area. (for example "along the grain" in a crystalline structure.)  They mention the conductivity but nothing about the melting point.

So basically if you read that whole thing they state it made a good pavement material and made a good concrete (presumably for making concrete blocks). 

So given it's a game I understand my dwarves don't need to add the aluminium powder the scientists did. (though totally possible in the DF world, just get a miller and a quern and mill native aluminium ore, get a bag, do it like sand, etc..) But my question is, do you think that concrete blocks made of ash would be able to withstand the high temperatures required of "Fire Safe Material"  in DF.


Yes... we were bored...  Are you bored too?

Reference:  here's a table of the thermal conductivity of some common materials.
http://www.flyash.info/2009/054-batmunkh2009.pdf

[smjjames]

Well, ash is already burnt and there wouldn't be anything left to burn, unlike charcoal. So it makes sense to me.

Didn't the romans use volcanic ash to make concrete that can cure underwater? *goes off to check wiki*

Edit: Actually they used volcanic sand or something.

Edit2whilestillediting: Check this link out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_concrete#Geopolymer_or_green_concrete

[orbcontrolled]

After reading this (which I found here) I'm almost convinced you could make a smelter out of anything. That person seems to have done it with just rocks and dirt.

My guess is the dwarf just digs a hole in the ground and finds some chunks of rock too small to register in the game, possibly using the ashes to help keep the heat in, but more likely just tossing it aside and rolling his eyes at whoever gave the order to build a smelter out of the stuff. 

[Fossaman]

That makes me want to try smelting copper, orbcontrolled. It looks like fun.

[Grimlocke]

The coalash from that Mongolian power plant s mainly made from silicumdioxide, and other oxides. It should hold up to a fair amouth of heat.

As much heat most rock types you can build smelter from in DF, you can even smelt iron ore in a smelter made of iron ore.

[Earth Striker Lurin]

So I guess the dwarves are making the ash bars like cinder blocks then...