CAREER: Nudging and Leveraging the Onset of Buckling in Architected Materials for Performance Gains

该学院早期职业发展（Career）奖支持将复杂代数、应用数学、工程力学和应用物理学的思想结合起来的研究，以促进对建筑材料微屈曲和后微屈曲行为的基本理解和控制。力学和材料界已经将他们的兴趣转向使用以单元格设计为中心的材料架构，以实现奇异的材料特性和功能，从而产生了被称为建筑材料的领域。在建筑材料中观察到的不寻常的特性和功能通常是通过有意地利用弹性微屈曲来获得的，即由于加载而形成材料的细胞壁和边缘形状的不稳定性。该研究项目将为微调建筑材料的微屈曲不稳定性创造一条途径，以利用定制的机械行为。研究成果有可能影响医学、交通、航空航天、建筑和人员保护等领域的应用。该奖项还将支持一项广泛的教育计划，通过改进课程、在当地儿童博物馆开展外展活动、通过YouTube视频传播研究成果，以及招聘、指导和培训本科生和研究生，扩大拉丁裔和西班牙裔学生在STEM企业中的参与。CAREER研究项目的目标是对周期性结构材料中弹性微屈曲的发生如何进行修改、控制和设计，以实现所需的微屈曲后行为，从而实现自定义和可调的有效机械行为产生新的理解。本研究的主要智力贡献是：(1)基于超复杂有限元方法的新型计算框架，用于量化和排序设计参数及其相互作用的影响；(2)基于矩量的快速不确定性量化方法，该方法预测了由于制造和加载条件的不确定性引起的变异性；(3)物理“助推”的概念是一种机制，可以在可用的屈曲状态之间转换，从而控制建筑材料中微屈曲的发生。推力可以通过材料驱动、结构设计或任何其他合适的措施来启动。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports research that combines ideas drawn from complex algebra, applied mathematics, engineering mechanics, and applied physics to advance the fundamental understanding and controlling of the onset of micro-buckling and post micro-buckling behavior of architected materials. The mechanics and materials communities have turned their interest to using material architecture centered on unit cell designs to enable exotic material properties and functionalities, giving rise to the field known as architected materials. The unusual sets of properties and functionalities observed in architected materials are often obtained by deliberatively exploiting elastic micro-buckling, i.e., instability in the shape of the cell walls and edges forming the material due to loading. This research project will create a pathway for fine-tuning the micro-buckling instabilities in architected materials to harness tailored mechanical behaviors. The research outcomes have the potential to impact applications in medicine, transportation, aerospace, construction, and personnel protection. The award will also support an extensive education plan to broaden the participation of Latinx and Hispanics students in the STEM enterprise through curriculum improvements, outreach activities at a local museum for children, dissemination of research through YouTube videos, and recruitment, mentoring and training of undergraduate and graduate students.The objective of this CAREER research program is to generate a new understanding of how the onset of elastic micro-buckling in periodic architected materials can be modified, controlled, and designed to achieve desired post micro-buckling behavior and thus, custom and tunable effective mechanical behaviors. The key intellectual contributions of this research are: (1) a novel computational framework based on hypercomplex finite element method to quantify and rank the influence of design parameters and their interactions; (2) a new method based on moment-based fast uncertainty quantification that predicts the variability due to uncertainties emanating from fabrication and loading conditions; and (3) the concept of the physical “nudge” as a mechanism to transition between the available buckling states and, thus, to control the onset of micro-buckling in architected materials. The nudge could be initiated through material actuation, structural design, or any other suitable measure.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.