Does Stainless Steel shield EMP?

[FutureBoy]

Just out of curiosity, I'm curious about how the apocalypse vehicle Cybertruck might fare in something like an EMP attack. Since Tesla vehicles and I assume most other new vehicles have so much electrical technology in them, I'd assume they would get seriously hampered or disabled if they encountered an EMP.

I wonder though if the SS shell of the Cybertruck might help to protect against some of the impacts an EMP attack might bring.

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[Crissa]

Anything with a well-grounded metal shell will do better, but the base fact of the matter is any EMP enough to damage electronics is just going to make anything short of a cement bunker seem like tissue paper.

But we also don't know whether our increasing amounts of capacitance awareness with all our touch devices may make them more resilient than we expect. They have to be able to discharge charge buildup, which is what kills electronic devices from an EMP.

-Crissa

 

[MiguelAznar]

anything short of a cement bunker seem like tissue paper.

Cement does not conduct electricity, so it would not protect against an EMP. While the stainless steel should make for parts of a good Faraday cage, the windows and antennas (for the truck to talk to the Tesla mothership) would bring the EMP inside to destroy the electronics. Here’s a thread on Stack Exchange about building a faraday cage to protect against an EMP:

https://physics.stackexchange.com/q...-a-faraday-cage-protect-something-from-an-emp

3 mm stainless steel might sound like it could absorb a stronger wave, but aluminum foil or copper wires would be sufficient for a Faraday cage. The pulse would unlikely create sufficient eddy currents to melt even foil, so 3 mm SS is overkill. The problem is all of the non-conductive holes in the truck.

 

[Crissa]

Cement does not conduct electricity, so it would not protect against an EMP. While the stainless steel should make for parts of a good Faraday cage, the ...

Cement structures contains steel and iron. Stone and aggregate contain dense crystal structures which ground signals.

You need more than 'a faraday cage' to block electromagnetic radiation. Otherwise your cell phone wouldn't work in your car.

And the glass is made of ALON, with metal coatings to increase infrared reflection.

-Crissa

 

[John K]

Don’t listen to this misinformation.

Evil Bond villain Elon Musk’s plot:

Stainless steel amplifies EMP. FSD takes your CT and arranges into a pattern to create super reverberation of the EMP all under the control of Elon Musk to use to make his coffee in the morning.

You just read on the internet so it must be true.

 

[MiguelAznar]

You need more than 'a faraday cage' to block electromagnetic radiation. Otherwise your cell phone wouldn't work in your car.

Cell phones work in cars because cars are not Faraday cages. Cell phones do not work in microwave ovens because they are Faraday cages for a range of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation that include the waves that cook food and that cell phones use to communicate. You can see into a microwave oven because the array of holes behind the window are too small for those waves, but not for lightwaves. I don’t know the frequencies in an EMP, so I don’t know how fine the cage would need to be.

Anyway, our Cybertrucks will not be invulnerable to EMPs.

 

[Crissa]

EMP is usually a broad spectrum of energy so that i affects all sorts of conductors and works its way into the electronics.

-Crissa

 

[Klaxon]

Cell phones do not work in microwave ovens because they are Faraday cages

Cell phones do not work even when removed from microwave ovens if the ovens not switched off.

But why not to enclose the critical CT electronics into small all metall enclosures, leaving the passengers to worry about their own protection from EMP?

 

[Throwcomputer]

EMP Paranoia. ha!

 

[MiguelAznar]

Cell phones do not work even when removed from microwave ovens if the ovens not switched off.

? … ?

But why not to enclose the critical CT electronics into small all metall enclosures, leaving the passengers to worry about their own protection from EMP?

Until a real electrical engineer jumps in to correct me…because the metal enclosures would have to fully isolate the electronics. For that electronics to communicate with the world outside the box, you’d probably need optical interfaces so an electrical surge wouldn’t follow wires into the box. Might need a battery inside the box, too, so no electrons pass.

That might be worth the expense and space if you’re designing a military aircraft whose purpose is surviving World War III to bomb the other country, but few Cybertruck buyers are willing to pay the price in money and compromised everyday performance to survive something we may never face. It might push the Cybertruck to near-Hummer bloat ?

And I’m unsure I’d want to survive all out nuclear war to face a brief and brutal life, scavenging for food produced before our agricultural system had most of its critical links evaporated. Better to live fully with my nimble Cybertruck before the apocalypse.

 

[Crissa]

But why not to enclose the critical CT electronics into small all metall enclosures, leaving the passengers to worry about their own protection from EMP?

Because the main danger from EMP is the wiring and ground surfaces, which you can't hide in a box unless you put the entire truck into a bunker. They'll develop an electrical charge and then the excited electrons will try to escape through the shielded electronics.

-Crissa

 

[Quicksilver]

At various times in my military career I was an NBC (Nuclear, Biological. Chemical) NCO.
We humans have created some very interesting and lethal ways to kill each other in large numbers.
The most EMP proof vehicle we ever had was the M35 "Deuce and a Half".
If you had fuel and air and could spin the engine it would fire off and run. If the batteries were dead you could pull or push start it.
I have driven them back to the Motor Pool with the tires singled out, no brakes (in Low Range you are not going fast in any gear), dead batteries and shot alternators.
There was nothing on that truck that an EMP could kill.
When the military bowed down the the environmental whackos and after the EPA ruined the diesel engine every new military vehicle came with an electronically controlled diesel engine.
They were a pain in the ass on a good day and full of grimlins.
None of these trucks will survive an EMP......none.....zilch, zero.
That means that all combat vehicles, tanks, mechanized artillery, Air Defense Artillery, and the support vehicles that haul the beans and bullets will become battlefield monuments.
In addition to that all radios, computers and other vital systems will be FUBAR.
As far as being a prepper and preparing for an EMP.........good luck.
Anything you need after TSHTF you will probably be using when the Pulse happens.
Even if you had redundant commo equipment stashed unless other people do also who are you going to communicate with.
There may be some Ham Radio operators that have made preparations for such an event but they will be few and far between.
Most of us will be looking at our handheld devices and cursing the gods that we have been cut off from the world (or what's left of it).
I do have a couple of old CB radios left over from my trucking days stashed in a metal skinned trailer. If other people have done the same I may have someone to talk to.

 

[webroady]

Cell phones work in cars because cars are not Faraday cages. Cell phones do not work in microwave ovens because they are Faraday cages for a range of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation that include the waves that cook food and that cell phones use to communicate. You can see into a microwave oven because the array of holes behind the window are too small for those waves, but not for lightwaves. I don’t know the frequencies in an EMP, so I don’t know how fine the cage would need to be.

Anyway, our Cybertrucks will not be invulnerable to EMPs.

Even if they were, much of the charging infrastructure would probably be toast.

 

[Jstoltz54]

EMP is usually a broad spectrum of energy so that i affects all sorts of conductors and works its way into the electronics.

-Crissa

I’ve read that all energy EMP can be interrupted and dispersed electronically, work has been underway for a long time bring something usable to fruition. But so far (like 10 year old info) it takes so much disruptive energy it can’t be done in a mobile or otherwise meaningful way. But the possibility seems to exist theoretically.

 

[Crissa]

I’ve read that all energy EMP can be interrupted and dispersed electronically, work has been underway for a long time bring something usable to fruition. But so far (like 10 year old info) it takes so much disruptive energy it can’t be done in a mobile or otherwise meaningful way. But the possibility seems to exist theoretically.

Yes, all it takes is metal at the right density and pattern.

The problem is, for every flux it's a different density and for every frequency it's a different pattern.

You can also block it with a magnetic field of your own, which is how the magnetic fields of the earth work; but when they collapse you take extra energy instead of less.

-Crissa

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