Materials for Star Cruiser and 2300AD
by Bryn Monnery


Introduction

This is essentially your own materials design sequence. Note that you can't get "Advanced Composite" out of it, and a lightweight composite that strong won't be available until around 2500.

Tech Level

The basic strength's for materials at various TL's are:
 
TL AV (Armour Grade) Notes
1 (Pre-history) 0.03 Wood, leather, bone, stone
2 (10,000 BC) 0.07 Copper
3 (3,000 BC) 0.1 Bronze
4 (0 AD) 0.17 Iron
5 (1400 AD) 0.23  
6 (1700AD) 0.33 Steel
7 (1800 AD) 0.43  
8 (1900 AD/ 2001 AD) 0.57 Face-hardened steel
9 (1930 AD/ 2060 AD) 0.7  
10 (1960/ 2090 AD) 0.87 Aluminium alloys
11 (2120 AD) (Old Commerical) 1.0  
12 (2200AD) (New Commercial/ Old Military) 1.25 Ceramic-Metal Composites
13 (2300AD) (New Military) 1.5  
14 (2400AD) 1.67  
15 (2500AD) 1.9  

This is modified as follows:
 
Type Toughness Mass Cost
Organic 0.2 0.7 0.1
Lightweight 0.67 2 1.33
Intermediate 0.8 3 1.167
Medium 1 4 1
Heavy 1.5 8 2.5
Super Heavy 1.75 10 3

The other modifer is the material type:

Construction materials are not meant as armour. They have half the AV, but cost 1/4 of the amount

Hardened materials are designed to be highly damage resistant. They have double the AV, and 4 times the cost. Partially hardened materials are double the cost and 1.4 time as tough.
 
 

Our classic SC materials correspond roughly to:

Metallic: Old Commercial Heavy Armour
Synthetic: Old Commercial Partially Hardened Medium Armour
L.P. Synthetic: Old Military Partially Hardened Intermediate Armour
Advanced Synthetic: New Military Partially Hardened Lightweight Armour
Composite: New Military Hardened Medium Armour (raised mass from 3 to 4)
Advanced Composite: No equivalent

The best modern, hardened armours are:

Lightweight: AV2
Intermediate: AV2.4
Medium: AV3
Heavy: AV4.5
Super Heavy: AV5.25

Cost

The generic cost of armour is Lv10,000 per cubic meter, modified by stealthing (see below), hardening, and weight. Note that construction materials are 1/4 this, and may not be hardened, or stealthed. Each TL below the current TL saves 20% of the cost, upto 90%.

Stealthing

This involves adding stealth treatments to our materials. Heavy and Super Heavy materials have a default RCS of 1 before stealthing. All others 0.6. One level of stealth multiplies this by 0.5, two levels 0.33, and 3 levels 0.2. Each level doubles the material cost.

The New Material Table

Converting as best we are able:
 
  Signature Lv per cubic meter Tons per cubic meter AV Armour Multiplier
Metallic 1 15,000 8 1.5 x4
Synthetic 0.6 12,000 4 1.41 x4.24
LP Synthetic 0.3 37,344 3 1.41 x4.24
Advanced Synthetic 0.1 150,000 2 2 x3
Composite 0.6 167,000 3 2.4 x2.5
Advanced Composite  0.2 213,333 2 2 x3