Quest: The wide application of new materials in the Sochi Winter Olympics

The opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics is going on, and this Olympic Games is not only the arena of top athletes, but also a test bed for new technologies and new materials. These new technologies and new materials enhance the performance of the Olympic venues and provide better sports equipment for athletes. Researchers hope that these advanced devices will help Olympic athletes achieve the best level of their lives.

Unlike most cities hosting the Olympics, all of the infrastructure of the Sochi Winter Olympics is new – it has now cost more than £31 billion. This Olympic Games is more expensive than previous Olympic Games – whether it is summer or winter Olympics. It also transforms Sochi from a subtropical summer resort on the Black Seashore into a world-class winter sports venue.

Light touch - wall turned into a projection screen

Sochi Olympic Stadium combines high-tech materials with modern design for 40,000 people to watch the game comfortably

The FishtOlympic Stadium, which can accommodate up to 40,000 people, is the main stadium of the Sochi Winter Olympics. Its unique design and novel materials make it possible to perform lively lighting performances during the opening and closing ceremonies and competitions. The top of the stadium is made up of two half-shell structures, which were built using approximately 36,000 m2 of Texlon. Texlon is a transparent film.

VectorFoiltec, the technology provider, says the material forms a climate envelope (climaticenvelope). The Texlon cushion consists of a multilayer ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene modified copolymer (ETFE) filled with low pressure air to insulate and protect it from wind damage.

The surface of the Texlon film captures the projected light and uses it to display images, colors, or play video. After processing, each film can transmit, reflect or scatter pictures, allowing the top of the stadium to be “part-time” video displays.

The stadium uses a combination of two and three air cushions, the former has better light transmission, while the latter is slightly worse. A light-transparent air cushion material allows natural light to enter the stadium, while a poor light transmission can scatter direct sunlight, thereby preventing the light from being too glaring. In the evening, LED light can present an unparalleled visual feast.

The design of many other important venues will also make viewers and athletes awe-inspiring, such as the Bolshoy Ice Dome, where the ice hockey teams of various countries will compete. It looks like frozen water droplets, and its characteristic aluminum roof spreads 38,000 LEDs. At night, the roof will be illuminated by colorful colors.

Dow Chemical Power Winter Olympics

As one of the global partners of the Olympic Games, the Dow Chemical Company provided technical support for some infrastructure, including the Great Ice Palace. “Dow is a global leader in the chemical industry and a well-known innovation company that provides us with sustainable solutions for renovating venues and urban infrastructure,” said Thomas of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Thomas Bach said, "As the official chemical company of the Olympic Games, Dow will continue to support the IOC's sustainable long-term strategy and play an important role." As a venue for speed skating and ice hockey, the shape of the Ice Palace looks exactly like a drop of frozen water droplets

Dow's heat transfer fluid will help maintain a constant temperature on the ice surface of the Big Ice Palace and will be used in air conditioning systems to provide reliable and stable temperature control. In the Great Ice Palace, Dow's other products are also found everywhere, including reinforced concrete mixes for the ground, industrial coatings that keep metal structural components from corrosion for long periods of time, and insulating materials and semiconductors that protect cables. material.

Another contribution of Dow is to offset the full carbon footprint of the Olympics – the first of its kind in previous Olympics. Dow achieved this goal by launching new energy-saving and low-carbon technologies in Russia, Brazil and South Korea. Brazil and South Korea will host the next two Olympic Games. The landfill gas project can also offset the carbon footprint, and this project also provides some energy for the operations of the Dow headquarters in Georgia, USA.

The Dow company claims that the project has offset 520,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2equivalent). Dow’s claim has been independently verified by the sustainability consulting firm Environmental Resources Management (ERM), which confirms that the carbon footprint of the final offset is far greater than the expected carbon footprint of the Sochi Olympics – 360,000 tons Carbon dioxide equivalent.

“We are very excited to have this opportunity to work with the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Dow customers and Olympic partners to contribute to the first Winter Olympics in line with the sustainability concept,” said George Dow’s Vice President of Olympics. “The official chemical company of the Olympics, our commitment is to ensure a higher level and a greener Olympics,” said George Hamilton.

Snow shortage solution

Although the carbon footprint of the Olympic Games has been offset, there are still technical difficulties in hosting the Winter Olympics here. This is a subtropical region with winter temperatures ranging from 0 to 6 C. If you consider the possibility of warm winter, this problem will be particularly serious, the anti-season warm winter is the main cause of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics snow shortage.

Normally, the West Caucasus Mountains, 25 miles from Sochi, will have a lot of snow, and the RosaKhutor Alpine Resort will host alpine skiing. However, the temperature in winter has become more and more unstable in recent years, which has made it impossible to guarantee one million cubic meters of snow required for ski resorts.

At the higher temperatures, SnowGen can still make snow. The snow in the picture is made at 20 °C.

Enter Mikko Martikainen is an expert in artificial snowmaking and the CEO of SnowSecure. He is employed by the Winter Olympics to design an emergency. The plan is to ensure that Sochi has enough snow. The program uses a technology developed by Martikainen 12 years ago, the largest snowmaking project in Europe to date, using 500 snow guns and hundreds of staff.

The snow storage system includes storing 710,000 cubic meters of artificial snow and natural snowfall from the previous year. The snow is divided into 14 parts and is prevented from melting by a high-tech insulation blanket consisting of a thermal foam, a highly reflective aluminum plate and a breathable geotextile that reduces humidity. After a year, 450,000 cubic meters of snow can be left. This is the safety measure that Ma Ledi Kaining said. Once needed, the snow can be transported to the stadium at any time.

In addition to the snow guarantee, another Finnish company, All-Weather SnowTek, is involved in the work. The company's three mobile snowmaking systems will provide snow for ski jumping and Nordic. The two venues have the lowest latitude. Natural snowfall is very rare.

“Our SnowGen system can make snow above 0°C, and we even made snow at 20°C,” says SnowTek CEO Hannu Pesonon. “In Sochi, these snow-making systems are running, making snow at room temperature of 0 ~ 20 ° C. Yesterday's temperature was 3 ° C, we made about 750 cubic meters of fresh snow in 24 hours."

SnowTek worked with Canadian company IceGen to produce snow in a closed process using refrigeration equipment, ice machines supplied by IceGen, and snow separation components. “The raw material for making snow is really only the brine composed of water and salt, and then it is cooled to a certain temperature,” says Pesen. “This process produces binary crystals of ice or snow in the brine. After the system is separated, it is output by the pump and snow is generated."

Secret weapon

In the world of ice and snow, even a millisecond will determine the outcome of the game. Here, there are equipment and sportswear that can improve performance – athletes and sponsors often keep the details of these equipment strictly confidential – these will help athletes stand on the podium of Sochi.

Equipped with these secret weapons, there is the British bobsleigh team. A large-scale technology company in the UK, 3M, provides them with a series of micro-abrasives from rough to very fine, which can reduce the friction of the sled and make them Sliding faster.

The aerodynamic performance of these garments has been improved to help shorten the speed of the skaters

Abrasives are sandpaper-like materials made of alumina and resin, many of which contain these components. “The difference is that we use advanced spray technology when making abrasives,” says Nigel Willcock, technical service engineer at 3M Abrasives. He is reluctant to reveal more, just saying that compared to other abrasives that manually sand carbon steel sleds, their abrasives allow athletes to have a very smooth surface more quickly and efficiently, and to remove surface irregularities caused by sliding on the track.

“Using our abrasives, the ice is gradually flattening, and we hope that using the equipment we provide, we can save the players a fraction of a second,” Wilkok added. “But the most important thing is the strength of the athletes. ”

At the same time, the US Luge Team hopes to win the gold medal with the help of Dow scientists who have worked together to create a new type of sled for the Sochi Winter Olympics. According to Dow officially, the new sled is faster, can be mass-produced and run more stable and innovative, helping athletes to perform at their best.

The new skis were tested with 20 different materials and were extensively tested in the lab and on the actual track. Dow reported that in the 2012-2013 season, the performance of two American lumber riders equipped with this new technology has improved.

The American Speed ​​Skating Team also got help, and clothing manufacturer Under Armour and defense contractor Lockheed Martin designed the suit for them. Wind tunnel tests have shown that the addition of raised polyurethane dents to specific locations of the suit can reduce friction and reduce wind resistance, making it the fastest streamlined speed skating competition ever made.

Gold, silver, bronze and...stone

The Sochi Winter Olympics will produce a special gold medal consisting of a small piece of Chelyabinsk meteorite.

But even with the equipment mentioned above, the most important thing is to gain the strength and determination of the athletes. With the addition of new projects such as half-pipe skiing and women's ski jumping, the total number of medals in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics reached a record 1,300.

The medals were made using approximately 2 tons of silver, 700kg of copper and 6kg of gold. Each gold medal contains 525g of silver and the outer layer is wrapped with 6g of gold. With a thickness of 10mm and a radius of 100mm, it is one of the biggest gold medals in previous Olympic Games.

However, on February 15th, more than half of the schedule, the athletes who won the championship won more than just such a big gold medal. On February 15 last year, a meteorite with a speed of 60 times the speed of light illumined Chelyabinsk. To commemorate the first anniversary of the event, the 10 champions of the day will receive the regular gold medal. An extra medal with small pieces of meteorites.

The largest piece of meteorite was salvaged from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul, weighing 600kg and 1.5m in diameter. Most other small meteorite fragments were recovered from their vicinity.

The team led by Viktor Grokhovsky of the Ural Federal University determined that the meteorite is exactly the same as ordinary globular meteorites - globular vermiculite is the most common type of meteorite. . Further analysis showed that the meteorite fragments contained approximately 10% of iron meteorites, including strontium iron sulphide and conical stones – both of which were nickel-iron alloy materials – as well as olivine and pyroxene.

These special meteorite medals are made of gold and silver by professional craftsmen in the town of Zlatoust. The medal surface is coated with a nickel cover and the center is inlaid with pieces of meteorite.

There are 50 medals in these meteorites, 40 of which are privately collected. The other 10 will be awarded to athletes who have won the following gold medals, including cross-country skiing women's relay, men's K-125 ski jumping, women's super-slewing and men's sledding.

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