Collaborative Research: A New Nonlinear Modal Updating Framework for Soft, Hydrated Materials

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The mechanical properties of soft, hydrated materials have long been of interest to the scientific community. Using soft materials in mechanical designs is becoming increasingly prominent due to their obvious advantages such as flexibility in design and intentional exploitation of nonlinearity. Especially, the high-rate response of soft materials has received attention due to their many applications in robotics, materials and the biomedical sciences. Most soft and hydrated materials (e.g., biomaterials) exhibit complex mechanical behavior that is challenging to quantify due to measurement uncertainties, mechanical anisotropy and inhomogeneity. In this project, a new nonlinear dynamics-based system identification and model updating methodology will be formulated to characterize and model soft, hydrated materials. The findings of this research have the potential to drastically enhance the accuracy, cost-efficiency and accessibility of broadband soft material characterization, and, as such, it can be transformative in diverse interdisciplinary areas, such as soft robotic design, mechanical indentation measurements and soft tissue feedback during surgery. The resulting model updating approach for soft materials will be transformative in predictive engineering designs since it will enable the better utilization and integration of soft materials in diverse applications. This approach can be used for both exploiting the nonlinearities in soft mechanical designs, as well as for their health monitoring. This project will also provide training and mentoring opportunities for a diverse group of K12, undergraduate and graduate students, with a special emphasis on underrepresented groups. Interactive demonstrations of the developed methodology are planned to be displayed in local science festivals to engage the interest of the public in this scientific issue.The main objective of this project is to introduce a new nonlinear dynamics-based system identification and model updating methodology to characterize soft, hydrated materials. It is based on direct analysis of measured response time series, and construction of appropriately defined transitions in appropriately defined frequency-energy plots (FEPs) of a soft-tissue tester and sample system. The dynamics of an underlying conservative system (i.e., the corresponding system with no dissipative effects) modeling the tester is then correlated with the measured response by computing nonlinear normal modes (NNMs). In the conservative system model, soft tissues are modeled as highly flexible elements with stiffness and damping nonlinearities. Then, the reconciliation of the measured and simulated responses in the FEPs is utilized to estimate the broadband dissipative properties of the soft tissues. The experimental validation will be done by testing soft materials such as tendons, hydrated PDMS and brain tissue. The physics-based nonlinear approach in this study for model updating is unprecedented since it is based exclusively on direct time series analysis, and the framework is sufficiently general to be applicable to other engineering applications, such as the reconciliation of nonlinear finite element models with experimental measurements, and the accurate model reduction of mechanical and aerospace components. Moreover, this research will drastically increase our understanding of complicated dynamical transitions and modal interactions in systems with nonlinear viscoelastic properties. It will also enable predictive engineering design of such systems and will provide new insights into the broadband response of soft materials by developing and applying a uniquely new nonlinear-dynamics based model updating framework.