Nanoscale Near-Surface Deformation Response in Nanostructured Materials

该奖项的研究目标是结合材料科学、工程和计算工具，在多个长度尺度上阐明纳米级机械诱导纳米材料损伤的基本机制。开发的概念将使先进的聚合物材料的制造成为可能，这些材料的特点是高模数和高强度与经历高弹性恢复的能力相结合，以及固有的透明性的好处。这些特性是未来各种与国防相关的应用所需要的，例如耐刮擦面罩。将根据内部结构和机械性能之间的相互关系，开发具有预测能力的广泛的聚合物材料系统的力学模型。研究的潜在影响涉及对纳米结构材料中纳米级机械损伤的机理理解，由于聚合物材料在磁存储设备、生物医学部件和微型机电系统等应用中的广泛使用，这将对纳米技术产生深远的影响。工程专业的研究生和本科生将通过参与研究以及将研究与现有课程相结合而受益。高中学生和教师与毕业生和本科生一起工作将获得第一手的研究经验，这将激励他们提高学习水平，并以理工科为职业，而高中教师将受益于设计实验进行课堂演示。

The research objective of the award is to combine materials science and engineering and computational tools to elucidate the basic mechanisms underlying nanoscale mechanically-induced damage in nanostructured materials at multi-length scales. The concepts developed will enable fabrication of advanced polymeric materials that are characterized by a combination of high modulus and strength with the ability to experience high elastic recovery, together with the benefit of inherent transparency. These properties are desired for a variety of future defense-related applications such as scratch-tolerant face shields. Mechanical models with predictive capabilities for a wide range of polymeric material systems based on the inter-relationship between the internal structure and mechanical properties will be developed. The potential impact of research relates to the mechanistic understanding of nanoscale mechanical damage in nanostructured materials that will have far reaching implications in nanotechnology because of the widespread usage of polymeric materials in applications including magnetic storage devices, biomedical components, and micro-electromechanical systems. Graduate and undergraduate engineering students will benefit through involvement in research and integration of research with existing curriculum. High school students and teachers working together with graduates and undergraduates will obtain first hand research experience, which will motivate them to advanced level of learning and considering science and engineering as their career, while the high school teachers will benefit in designing experiments for classroom demonstration.