Collaborative Research: Reconfiguring Steel Structures: Energy Dissipation and Buckling Mitigation Through the Use of Steel Foams

该奖项的研究目标是表征新型泡沫钢的机械性能，并确定这类新材料是否为土木结构性能的变革性改进提供了机会。 尽管其它种类的金属泡沫在航空航天和汽车工业中具有良好的用途，但钢泡沫制造技术的出现为低成本大规模生产适用于民用结构应用的材料打开了大门。 该研究计划包括实验，以表征材料的结构和力学性能，并模拟建立泡沫钢在土木结构中的概念验证应用。 目标应用是耗能装置，以提高建筑系统的抗震性能和选择性应用泡沫钢，以提高薄壁钢结构构件的强度和延性。如果成功，这项研究计划将刺激增加研究和开发工作，导致低成本的大规模生产泡沫钢，并将确定在极端荷载事件期间改善土木结构性能的方法。 通过改善结构性能和激励钢铁行业开发新的制造能力，潜在的利益为社会积累。 该研究与钢铁行业和结构设计实践密切相关，通过由执业工程师和钢铁行业专业人士组成的工业咨询委员会。 一个垂直整合的合作研究团队，从本科生到三所高等院校的全职教授，以及一个针对研究生和高中生的外展计划，确保该项目将对劳动力发展和导师制产生重大影响。

The research objectives of this award are to characterize the mechanical properties of novel steel foams and determine whether this new class of materials presents opportunities for transformative improvement of the performance of civil structures. Although other kinds of metal foams serve well established purposes in the aerospace and automotive industries, the advent of manufacturing techniques for steel foams opens the door to low cost mass production of a material suitable for civil structural application. The research program consists of experiments to characterize the structure and mechanical properties of the material and simulations to establish proof-of-concept applications of steel foams to civil structures. The target applications are energy dissipating devices to improve seismic performance of building systems and selective application of steel foam to improve the strength and ductility of thin-walled steel structural members.If successful, this research program will spur increased research and development work leading to low-cost mass production of steel foams, and will have identified methods for improving the performance of civil structures during extreme loading events. The potential benefits accrue to society through improved structural performance and incentive for the steel industry to develop new manufacturing capabilities. The research is closely connected to the steel industry and the practice of structural design through an industrial advisory board comprising practicing engineers and steel industry professionals. A vertically integrated, collaborative research team spanning from the undergraduate to full professor levels across three institutions of higher learning, and a program of outreach targeting graduate students and high school students from under-represented groups, ensures that the project will have significant workforce development and mentorship impacts.