SMF Construction Process

>
> I'm left very confused about how a glass roof, basically covering
> 1/2 the circumference of the torus ring is fine, especially
> considering the stresses at the juncture of the glass and the metal,
> but a curving torus constructed entirely of metal will weaken under
> the stresses.
>

I do not understand your confusion.

The glass window is a weak point. Yes.

If we need windows, then it is an engineering challenge. Ian Woollard and
myself have suggested technical approaches for dealing with it.

>
> As a laymen, this seems backwards to me. Can someone take a few
> minutes and explain why the glass isn't a weak point but the metal
> curvature is.
>

Why ? That would be false. The glass is a weak point.

>
> If a thicker skin is a solution, why not build that worker-station,
> pressurize it, inhabit it, get the refinery working, and then take
> blocks of metal and using vapor disposition start applying vaporized
> metal to the station skin. The questions that this process raises

What has this got to do with windows ?

>
> for me are 1.) the atmospheric stresses you reference in this post
> will be present, so what does the application of more metal to a
> stressed pressure vessel do to the distribution of forces and
> stresses;

Messing with a pressurized structure like this will invalidate your safety
certificate. You should only pressurize a pressure vessel once its
contruction is complete. If you want to do anything different then you have
years of lobbying to do with the a body such as American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME) who set the standards for industrial pressure
vessels in the USA, or NASA. You will have to work with them to develop a
new process technology, and then get it codified into a standard. 5 years
would be my estimate of the time required.

Applying more layers to a pressure vessel might be a useful maintenance
process if it starts to corrode or crack later in life. But you would need
to depressurize first.

> 2.) thermal expansion issues;

Thermal expansion needs to be accounted for in the pressure vessel stress
analysis.

This is standard engineering, nothing particularly difficult here.

> 3.) a solid monolithic metal
> shell sprayed onto a pressure vessel composed of many parts joined
> together with welds - what forces and transformations occur at the
> point of contact?
>

I do not understand this question. Most pressure vessels contain welds.

What has all this got to do with windows ?