Collaborative Research: Nanofluidics Enabled Attenuation of Dynamic Impacts and Stress Waves

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Attenuation of dynamic impacts and stress waves has been pursued to protect personnel and important infrastructures and devices. However, mitigation procedures of stress waves of most of existing protection materials and structures are based on energy absorption underpinned by unrecoverable buckling and/or plastic deformation of materials and structures. Besides, the activation time of such deformation mechanisms is much longer than the time needed for dynamic impacts and stress waves propagate through these protection materials. Nanofluidics, in which the liquid is forced into nanoscale channels with hydrophobic surface by an external pressure or stress, is expected to provide a compelling route for attenuating mechanical wave energy. This mechanism has been routinely applied to characterize the nanopore size distributions of porous materials, but now offers a new paradigm for the design of protection materials and structures, entirely distinct from conventional energy absorption mechanisms. The overarching goal of this project is to investigate and understand nanofluidics enabled mitigation of dynamic impacts and stress waves with particular focuses on nanofluidics in three-dimensional nanoporous networks. This collaborative project will also provide a broad impact on education including professional trainings to both graduate and undergraduate students, and on outreach including inspiring interactions with local high schools. The objective of this collaborative project is to systematically investigate the science of nanofluidics in non-wetting liquid-solid nanoporous composite materials, and to explore its underlying protection mechanism for mitigating dynamic impacts and stress waves. To this end, the proposed research will focus on three tasks: (i) to investigate and unveil the science of nanofluidics in non-wetting liquid-solid nanoporous structures under a high speed loading using atomistic simulations, (ii) to develop a theoretical model of nanofluidic energy capture mechanism to quantify nanofluidic responses to dynamic impacts and stress waves, and (iii) to design and carry out verification experiments at high strain rates by employing non-wetting liquid-solid nanoporous materials platforms. The nanofluidic energy capture mechanism will refresh existing design strategies of protection materials and structures subjected to stress waves, thereby revolutionizing both fundamental nanofluidics and application technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.