Synthesis Methods for Structural and Compliant Mesostructured Parts

本项目的主要目标是证明具有设计的介观结构的部件比具有散装材料、泡沫或其他介观结构方法的部件具有更好的结构和/或顺应性性能（单位重量）。 介观结构是指零件内尺寸介于微观尺度和宏观尺度之间的特征，例如，小桁架结构、蜂窝和泡沫。 为了实现这一目标，将整合设计，CAD，优化，机械和制造领域的研究。 将开发一种方法和软件系统，以综合零件和柔性机构在2D和3D。 展望了多尺度力学建模、几何建模、柔顺机构综合、拓扑优化等方面的研究进展。 零件和机构设计将使用增材制造（快速原型）机器进行制造，以演示和测试最终系统。预计这项研究将建立一个设计过程，将利用增材加工的能力，实现异构和复杂的结构，不能通过传统的制造方法实现。如果成功的话，这项研究可以为社会提供一个显着的好处，提供比目前更有效地利用材料的产品，从而提高汽车和飞机的燃油经济性，机器人手臂具有更好的性能（重量更轻），假肢，以适应他们的佩戴者，并改善过滤介质（设计的顺应性可以帮助固液分离），以及其他好处。 还将产生其他更广泛的影响。 研究生和本科生将从代表性不足的群体中招募。 研究成果将被纳入几个研究生和本科生课程。此外，这些进展将有助于跨多个尺寸尺度的设计理论和方法。 这些进展预计将应用于工程设计以外的材料力学，制造，材料科学领域。

The primary goal of this project is to demonstrate that parts with designed mesostructure have better structural and/or compliance performance, per weight, than parts with bulk material, foams, or other mesostructured approaches. Mesostructure refers to features within a part that have sizes between micro and macro-scales, for example, small truss structures, honeycombs, and foams. To achieve this goal, research from the design, CAD, optimization, mechanics, and manufacturing areas will be integrated. A method and software system will be developed to synthesize parts and compliant mechanisms in 2D and 3D. Research advances in the areas of multi-scale mechanics modeling, geometric modeling, compliant mechanism synthesis, and topology optimization are expected. Part and mechanism designs will be fabricated using additive manufacturing (rapid prototyping) machines to demonstrate and test the resulting system. It is expected that this research will establish a design process that will take advantage of the capability of additive processing to realize hetergeneous and complex structures that cannot be achieved by traditional manufacturing methods. If successful, this research could provide a significant benefit to society by providing products that utilize material much more efficiently than currently possible, leading to improved fuel economy for cars and planes, robot arms with better performance (lighter weight), prosthetics that adapt to their wearers, and improved filtration media (designed compliance can aid solid-liquid separation), among other benefits. Other broader impacts will be achieved. Graduate and undergraduate students will be recruited from under-represented groups. Research results will be incorporated into several graduate and undergraduate courses. Additionally, advances will contribute to theory and methods for design across multiple size scales. These advances are expected to apply beyond engineering design to mechanics of materials, manufacturing, materials science fields.