Synthesis Methods for Structural and Compliant Mesostructured Parts

该项目的主要目标是证明，与采用散装材料、泡沫或其他介观结构方法的部件相比，具有设计的细观结构的部件具有更好的结构和/或顺应性性能。细观结构是指零件内部尺寸介于微观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，将从设计、CAD、优化、力学和制造领域进行综合研究。将开发一种在2D和3D中综合零件和柔顺机构的方法和软件系统。展望了多尺度力学建模、几何建模、柔顺机构综合、拓扑优化等领域的研究进展。零件和机构设计将使用加法制造(快速成型)机器进行制造，以演示和测试所产生的系统。预计这项研究将建立一种设计过程，利用加法加工的能力来实现传统制造方法无法实现的异质和复杂结构。如果成功，这项研究可能会为社会带来巨大的好处，提供比目前可能的材料利用效率更高的产品，从而提高汽车和飞机的燃油经济性，性能更好的机械臂(更轻)，适合佩戴者的假肢，以及改进的过滤介质(设计的合规性可以帮助固液分离)，以及其他好处。其他更广泛的影响将会实现。研究生和本科生将从代表性不足的群体中招聘。研究成果将被纳入几门研究生和本科生课程。此外，这些进展将有助于多尺度设计的理论和方法。这些进展预计将不仅适用于工程设计，还将应用于材料力学、制造和材料科学领域。

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.