Can metal be bred through natural selection?

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I don't know what the fuck you are talking about, but you can do a genetic algorithm on alloy compositions

>>8918061
5% possibility of such breeding in our age

>>8918109
Literally the only two requirements of what I proposed are being able to create a uniform and stable but very hot temperature, and vibrating whatever is being heated.

The rest is just patience.

Would it work?
Who knows!

>>8918135
And why the fuck are you vibrating it?

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>>8918145
>asking questions answered by the OP

>>8918151
I don't fucking understand why the fuck one would do something so stupid. How the fuck is vibration going to change the structure at all, without you know heating it?

>>8918165
>without you know heating it
Also in the OP.
>heating the metal to just under melting point to make it extremely weak but capable of reforming, then vibrating it at various frequencies

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>>8918061
Nigga the only things that will form spontaneously are oxides.

I think you're missing a lot of the basics on mechanical properties of metals. Alloy strength comes more from microstructure than composition. Microstructure is controlled by processing and phase separation.

What you're proposing is basically annealing with some sound added. That'll just cause recrystallization of new grains.

>>8918165
>>8918145
this is why we need the math captcha , stat
these retarded polnogs don't deserve to post

>>8918167
Without the sound getting turned into heat.

>>8918171
>Alloy strength comes more from microstructure than composition
This has nothing to do with composition.
The point of this is to create conditions where the weakest parts of the microstructure are being continually destroyed, and the scattered particles are continually annealing into random structures that will only last if they are strong enough to survive the conditions.
The whole idea of this is to optimise the microstructure.

>>8918185
so essentially

raise it to just above its melting point

then vibrate it until it's not melted anymore

>>8918183
You could just figure out how much sound was getting turned into heat, and lower the amount of heat applied by other means.
It's actually better to heat with sound because the heat is created uniformly throughout the metal.

>>8918187
No, just below melting point.
No solid microstructure should survive being above the normal melting point, but if the metal is just below melting point and being disturbed (with vibrations) then:
>some of the microstructure will survive because it's strong enough
>all the rest gets rearranged
>repeat for what was just rearranged

>>8918176
Do you have any goddamn evidence that you can randomize a metal's microstructure with sound?
>>8918185
What the fucking fuck did you just vomit out on your keyboard?

Ok let's take this step by step
>>scattered particles
What scattered particles asshole? Are we turning the metal into sand somehow? Are we blasting it with sound strong enough that metal atoms fly off? We call that process MELTING

>> continually annealing into random structures
That ain't any annealling I've ever heard of. In general when we anneal something we heat it up past its recrystallization temperature and cool it back down slowly. This way whatever goddamn microstructure we had before is fucking gone and we have a pretty much goddamn uniform microstructure with fucking huge grains.

>>8918185
This is retarded to the point where I'm having trouble pointing out what in particular is wrong.

You're not going to get multiple microstructures. You're going to get the one thermodynamically stable phase system at that temperature.

I'm not even going to get into this idea of certain structures being retained and certain ones being removed. You're bringing an alloy of a fixed composition to a fixed temperature. Read what the stable phase system will be off a phase diagram.

>>8918215
Not melting it, nor blasting it with sound strong enough that metal atoms fly off.
A little bit of both; Almost melting it so that it's weak, and using moderately strong sound to disturb the metal enough so that any weak bonds are broken.

The appeal of it is that two grains might be individually strong, but the join between them is weak; by making the metal weak enough with heat to be damaged by sound, that join will be altered continuously because it is weak. When it becomes strong, it will stop changing.
Although a perfect fusion is unlikely, the two grains may almost be like one grain afterwards.

>>8918227
>by making the metal weak enough with heat to be damaged by sound, that join will be altered continuously because it is weak. When it becomes strong, it will stop changing.

What are you smoking and why do you think this is possible? You also realize holding a metal at an elevated temperature causes new grains to form and grow. You're not going to remove grains, you're going to create them.

>>8918233
Oh, so even if just at near melting point, the metal will still spontaneously undergo structural changes?
Had no idea that was a thing.
How does that even happen though?

>>8918061
What the fuck.
Obviously not through genes but the concept, yes. There are such things as evolutionary algorithms but evolution is blind and inefficient as fuck. So it's not really useful for almost all applications, including what you propose.

>>8918254
The metal contains dislocations, which create strain within the material. At elevated temperatures, these dislocations are able to diffuse and annihilate, which reduces the strain within the material. Enhanced diffusion at higher temperatures also causes new, strain free grains to form. These grains will be large in number and very small, typically forming at existing grain boundaries. These new strain free grains then grow outward, consuming one another, leading to large strain free grains. The driving force for recrystallization comes from removing the strain within the material. This is the basics of annealing, which is a process used to make metals and alloys more ductile.

Also in general polycrystalline materials are easy to make, while single crystal materials are extremely difficult. If you want a single crystal, you need to form the solid with only a single point of nucleation, and you need to solidify in a way that does not lead to grain boundaries (ie dendrites). There are a number of ways to do this, but they are all extremely slow and expensive. Single crystal parts are used for things like jet turbine blades that need to have zero grain boundary area to give maximum creep resistance.

>>8918061
I came here to make fun of OP... but this isnt actually that bad of an idea. A little like shaking down the contents of a skillet. The food in the skillet shifts until it falls into a position where all the food in the pan is as close to the bottom as it can be, all gaps filled and the surface as smooth as it can be without being pressed.

Actually, a ceramic press on top of the metal might help speed the process. Like forming diamonds but with steel.

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>theoretical materials science

>>8918061
You're describing smelting, retard. Mankind has practiced it for over 3,000 years

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>>8918061
great, now /sci/ wants to breed metals