Collaborative Research: Analyzing Deployable Torque-Activated Structural Mechanisms for Enhanced Tension Capacity of Geosystems

该奖项的重点是了解如何在岩土基础设施中利用复杂的、可部署的结构系统来减少其总体尺寸，从而减少运输、材料和生命周期成本。可展开的地下结构是指安装在地下后可以改变尺寸或形状的结构。这样可以用更少的安装工作和成本实现更大的基础能力。使用可展开机构来增加基础能力对于地质结构来说是一个新颖的概念，因为这些机构仅在航空航天和地面应用中使用。更具体地说，这项研究的重点是可展开的带有遮阳篷的地下结构，一旦安装，这些遮阳篷就会增加其地下尺寸。该想法可应用于海上波浪能和风能转换器、陆基风力涡轮机和高层建筑的基础桩。这项研究的未来进展将提高地质结构的可持续性，以创建使用更少材料并具有更好的运输包装的系统，同时保持所需的承载能力。此外，在该项目中，虚拟现实等先进的可视化技术将用于开发推广工具，向学生介绍结构部署和先进的土壤-结构相互作用的概念。该研究的具体目标是通过获得机械地描述部署过程中发生的土壤-结构相互作用所需的基本物理洞察力来解锁地下芒部署的基本概念。所面临的重大挑战是 1) 了解可展开的顺应结构的土壤-结构相互作用，以及 2) 使用可增强系统基础能力的芒布置来演示地下结构系统的部署。开发具有荷载传递信息的土壤-结构混合模型的找形方法，并结合健康诊断的统计不确定性分析，将用于推进非线性土壤-结构相互作用的知识库。这项工作还将推进可展开结构的结构分析和土壤-结构相互作用的计算建模方面的科学知识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award focuses on understanding how complex, deployable structural systems can be utilized in geotechnical infrastructures to reduce their overall size and therefore transportation, material, and life-cycle costs. Deployable underground structures are ones that change size or shape after being installed under the ground. This allows for larger foundation capacities to be achieved with less installation effort and cost. Using deployable mechanisms to increase foundation capacity is a novel concept for geostructures since these mechanisms have only been utilized in aerospace and over-ground applications. More specifically, this research focuses on deployable underground structures with awns that increase their size underground once they are installed. The idea can be applied to foundation piles for offshore wave and wind energy converters, land-based wind turbines, and tall buildings. Future advances from this research will enable increased sustainability of geostructures to create systems that uses less material and have better packing for transportation while maintaining the required load carrying capacity. Furthermore, in this project advanced visualization techniques such as virtual reality will be used to develop outreach tools that introduce students to concepts of structural deployment and advanced soil-structure interaction.The specific goal of the research is to unlock this fundamental concept of underground awn deployment by gaining the fundamental physical insight required to mechanistically describe the soil-structure interactions occurring during the deployment process. The grand challenges addressed are to 1) understand soil-structure interaction of deployable, compliant structures and 2) demonstrate underground structural system deployment using an awn arrangement that enhances system foundation capacity. Development of form-finding methods with load-transfer informed soil-structure hybrid models in combination with statistical uncertainty analysis for health diagnostics will be used to advance the knowledge base on nonlinear soil-structure interaction. This work will also advance scientific knowledge on structural analysis for deployable structures and computational modeling for soil-structure interaction.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.