FMRG: Threading High-Performance, Self-Morphing Building Blocks Across Scales Toward a Sustainable Future

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This Future EcoManufacturing research grant will develop sustainable, self-morphing building blocks from the nano to macro scales inspired by the biological systems to devise novel manufacturing processes of highly efficient structures and components from centimeter to meter scale. These systems will be lightweight, yet ultrastrong, self-supportive, adaptive and energy efficient. Using common construction materials such as concrete, steel, aluminum, carbon fibers in constructing sustainable buildings, bridges, and other products involves a lot of construction waste and energy consumption. Polymers and their composites potentially offer strong and lightweight alternatives, however, none has matched the performance of steel and concrete. Natural materials are known for their lightweight yet astoundingly high strength, stiffness, and toughness, such as spider silk, dragonfly wings, and trees, where the intricate nano- and microarchitectures can prevail into meter scale. Inspired by natural materials, this project will develop new rules, new bio-based and bioinspired composite materials, and new eco-manufacturing methods to create low-cost, high-performance structural components for reuse, repurposing, and upcycling. It will bring researchers in architectural and structural designs, chemistry, physics, materials science, bio-, chemical and mechanical engineering, computation and economics together. It will also train an inclusive and responsible future Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) workforce and K-12 through curricula innovation, science demos, public exhibitions, workshop, and underrepresented minority outreach and internship. This Future EcoManufacturing research aims to bridge the nanometer- and meter-scale by addressing common questions in design and manufacturing, while overcoming existing challenges at the macroscale such as gravity versus internal structural forces. Several types of nano- and microstructured design elements will be manufactured from scalable bio-based and bioinspired composite materials with intrinsic anisotropy, followed by eco-construction via origami/kirigami engineering, modular assembly, and on-demand printing. By fine-tuning the material’s interfacial interactions to program the dynamic and active behaviors for reuse, repurpose and upcycling, and use of form-finding and topology optimization techniques, the project will achieve higher performance (e.g. lower weight, higher precision, high strength, novel wave-matter interactions) with fewer parts and reduced assembly. The project will involve four highly synergistic thrusts, including 1) multi-scaled design, modeling, prediction and optimization of stimuli-responsive structures at multi-scales, 2) assembly of anisotropic, responsive and high strength multi-materials at the nano-/microscale, 3) proof-of-concept, reduction-to-practice eco-manufacturing of materials developed in 2) into structures designed in 1), and 4) pushing the envelope to achieve additional performative function with reduced material via wave-matter engineering. This Future Manufacturing research is supported by the Divisions of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (ENG/CMMI), Materials Research (MPS/DMR), Chemistry (MPS/CHE), Engineering Education and Centers (ENG/EEC), and the Division of Undergraduate Education (EHR/DUE).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.